Category Archives for Uncategorized
Breathe With Me
Lunch yesterday was leftover veggie quinoa chili (with Greek yogurt and Cholula on top) and today I made Peanut Butter Runner’s Mexican quinoa. There’s a huge bag of quinoa that has been hanging out in the pantry forever now and I’ve hardly used it so I’ve been making up for lost time I guess. I’m a little quinoa’d out at the moment though.
Greg went grocery shopping the other night and came back with pineapple which is one of those things I should buy more often because it is delicious. Since I’ve started counting calories again, I am serious about my snacks in between meals. Pineapple, apple & peanut butter, oranges, banana & pb, and chips & salsa are my favorites right now.
I posted this on Instagram (let me know your username because I’d love to follow some of you guys!) the other day, so apologies if you’ve already seen it. I got my hair cut awhile back but have worn it up in a bun since because there’s just no time for styling right now. I finally straightened it one day and loved it. I need to do that more often. I bought this Infiniti Instyler by Conair (affiliate link) and it has drastically reduced the time it takes to straighten my hair, plus it gets it so smooth and shiny.
Also, it seems that Waves has inherited my major under eye bags. They really used to bug me when I was younger, but since there’s nothing I can really do about it them I have learned to live with them. There are more important things to worry about I suppose.
I have seriously been toying with the idea of getting certified to teach cycle classes. They are my favorite classes to take and I would love to be able to teach a couple of days a week. There’s a lot of different certifications out there, but most of them aren’t offered anywhere nearby so I need to look more into it. I definitely want to get one from a reputable place and learn all that I can.
I was looking around for more information and I found this play list and really liked it so I wanted to share. When “Breathe” by Prodigy popped up it took me back to the days on watching MTV late at night while making websites on Angelfire. Haha, those were good times. I still miss 120 Minutes—I loved that show.
Speaking of spin, my plan is to take an early morning class tomorrow. I’ve got all my things laid out and ready to go. I will not turn off my alarm tomorrow and go back to bed. It will feel great to get my workout over and done with first thing.
Have a wonderful Friday and weekend!
Stuff & Things
I started off this morning with my alarm going off at 5:25 because I intended to go to a strength class at the gym. When I got up it was raining pretty hard so I just decided that I’d go another day, which was silly because I was already awake and it took me awhile to get back to sleep. I even had everything set out and ready to go. My yoga mat (I take my own mat because I think the ones in the gym are gross), water, clothes, heart rate monitor were all waiting by the door so now I’m just going to leave them there for the next strength class on Thursday morning.
I ended up getting up with Waves around 8:15 and made coffee and breakfast while she bounced around in her jumper. I had a couple of slices of toasted Ezekiel bread with two eggs and avocado along with coffee that I added some unsweetened almond milk to. Since I’ve started tracking my food again, I’ve really been paying attention to sugars and this breakfast had 0g which was awesome.
I’ve also been upping my water intake since I hadn’t been doing so well before. I make sure to have a glass right when I wake up and I keep a glass with a straw by me all day long. I’ve noticed that I will drink a lot more if there’s a straw for some reason.
I had another cup of coffee and a couple of frozen chocolate banana peanut butter bites while the baby took her first nap. Seriously, make these because they are delicious.
During her second nap I got all the ingredients ready for vegetarian quinoa chili. I found this recipe and changed it up a bit. I made mine in the crock pot and here’s what I changed:
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup water2.5 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, dicedI added a can of green chiles
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
21 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
32 (15 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2-3 tablespoons chili powder, depending on your taste (we used 3)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Salt and black pepper, to taste
I didn’t cook anything, but instead just put it all in the crock pot to let it do its thing. It is really good and was a super easy dinner. I added it to MyFitnessPal and I guessed it would serve eight or so, and each one cup serving would be 260 calories, 2g fat, 4.5g sugar, 270mg sodium, and 13g protein.
After I got dinner going I decided to do Jackie Warner’s XTreme Personal Training DVD. I remembered that it was fairly easy, but boy did I remember wrong. I must have just forgotten exactly how hellacious it is because it was definitely a tough workout. I couldn’t do the full minute of each move and I was out of breath after the first couple of moves. I used 5lb weights, burned 263 calories, and could barely move my arms and legs afterwards. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be hurting in the morning.
Lunges, Tahini & Veggie Korma
Yesterday morning I stuck to my workout goal for this month and headed to the gym for strength class. You can’t imagine how thrilled I was when she said we were going to focus on lower body and were going to do mostly lunges and squats the entire hour. I can’t deal with lunges and especially can’t deal with them when it involves using a step to get even lower. My legs shake, burn and I feel like I’m going to fall every time. All this means is that it’s not my strongest point and my balance isn’t that great so I just need to do more to get stronger. Yesterday definitely helped me work on it and today I’m not moving around as easily as I normally do so I’d say I got an awesome workout in.
It always amazes me how many calories I burn in that class. Yesterday I burned 409 calories and my heart rate got up to 163 and all we did was strength train.. there was no cardio moves involved.
After class I ran a few errands and then came home and was starving. I wanted to make something with quite a bit of protein since I did strength training so I made a wrap with black beans, brown rice, tahini dressing, nutritional yeast, and kale all wrapped up in an Ezekiel tortilla. It had 23g of protein and was delicious! To make the tahini dressing I used a couple of tablespoons of tahini mixed with lemon juice, garlic powder and water.
I love Ezekiel tortillas but they can be a huge pain because they break so easily. My tip is to make sure they’re heated up very well before trying to work with them. If they’re the slightest bit cool they will break and fall apart.
After eating lunch and doing a bit of freelance work, I went to the grocery store to stock up on some things. This is a pretty typical shopping trip for me. I’ll always grab eggs, Greek yogurt, Ezekiel bread & pitas, salad veggies, tofu, bananas, and almond butter. I also always pick up a few cans of various beans just so the pantry is always well stocked.
Kroger had a great sale on frozen veggies. They were $1 each and are perfect for quick meals because they cut down on prep time so much.
For dinner I made vegan vegetable korma from Appetite for Reduction. I served it over some quinoa and it was awesome! Lately I’ve been asking Greg to grade dinner because he will always say it’s good when I ask and doesn’t really provide much feedback than that. He gave this recipe a solid B while I gave it an A. You’ve got to know though, this is coming from a guy that ate chips and salsa for every meal when I met him. I’m slowly working on him and he’s now eating much better. :]
Here’s the nutrition information I got for the korma. This does not include the quinoa I served mine with.
October Goals
I can’t believe that it’s already October but I’m so happy it is! This month is a lot like spring to me because I get so energized and motivated. I have quite a few goals in mind and need to get my booty in gear to make ‘em happen. I’ve created a little button on the right side of the page so that I can easily check back in with these goals. I created a post in August just like this but it got buried in with all the other posts and I ended up forgetting about it. This way I can just click and easily track what I am and need to be doing.
I’ve gotten into group exercise classes again and wanted to create a little schedule for this month. Here’s a rough idea of what I would like my week to look like:
Monday: Strength
Tuesday: Spin
Wednesday: Power (total body strength class – exactly like Body Pump)
Thursday: Yoga & Zumba
Friday: Strength
Saturday: Spin & Cardio Fuel
I’m sure that I will have some scheduling conflicts come up but I will just sub it with an earlier or later class or do a workout at home. I’ve got a ton on dvds and excellent resources like BodyRockTV, Blogilates & ExerciseTV that feature short (think under 15 minutes), intense videos so there’s no excuse not to get a workout in.
I’ve been logging all my workouts over at Daily Mile and there’s also a widget over on the right that shows my latest workout. Add me on Daily Mile if you’d like!
Some other goals I have:
- Enjoy the weather by taking Pepper on daily walks
- Go to a pumpkin patch & corn maze
- Decorate my mantle for Halloween (my favorite holiday ever!)
- Add more recipes to my recipe binder – especially lunch recipes for Greg
- Develop a schedule for my freelance work. I’m thinking early mornings right after working out so that my nights will be free to make dinner, pack Greg’s lunch, catch up on housework and laundry, etc.
That’s all I’ve got for this month. I normally get so busy and miss out on corn mazes, pumpkin patches, hayrides and other fun fall things but I’m determined not to this year. This is such a wonderful month and I will be taking full advantage.
Weekly Love
Just a few things I’m loving this week…
These photos of Pepper » I’ve been taking Pep out to this park with a huge field and letting him run like crazy while he’s on the retractable leash. He has a blast and will wear himself out in just a few minutes but he has so much fun. It’s become a routine now and we’ve been doing this every morning. These photos are of one happy pup :]
Salads & Wraps » I’ve been eating so many salads and wraps. I got the best Asian tofu wrap from my local co-op and wish I knew how to recreate it. It had whole almonds inside which were amazing and I would have never thought to add.
Other things that made my week » taking Zumba for the first time /// all the Halloween stuff out in stores /// leaves falling /// coffee with nutmeg /// nutritional yeast (I’ve been putting it on everything) /// spending lots of time with Greg /// readers who start their own blogs /// having four tomatoes and three bell peppers finally growing in our mini garden!
Recipes that look amazing & I’m wanting to try! » pumpkin pie smoothie /// instant oatmeal cookies /// jack-o-pumpkin breakfast sandwich /// copycat pumpkin frappuccino – Yeah, I’ve gone a little pumpkin crazy this week.
Be sure and tell me what all you’ve been lovin’ this week and have a wonderful weekend!
