Hikes and Crafting

When Matt and I woke up this morning we were both pretty sore from our workouts this week. We decided to take it easy and take Champ to a local park for a hike. 

On our way!!

When all was said and done we hiked 3.5 miles in just over an hour!  I was beat when we got home, but I had some wedding stuff on the agenda for today.  First off I finished my candy buffet sign by stringing it all together and doing a test hang in our kitchen.

Then I moved on to signs for the back of our chairs during the reception.

These took me a few hours.  After I was done I was definitely in need of a break.  Matt and I met our friend for a quick game of mini golf.  I didn't take many pictures, only one...

My hole in one!! I'm purple, obviously. Mini golf can be a dangerous sport for those around me.  I have come close to taking out a competitor or two with a rogue ball.  I am well known for being super competative and mini golf is no different. When Matt and I were on spring break my sophomore year of college we went to play mini golf with some friends.  I was winning for the first half of the game and then I started losing and I was not happy. I may have taken an aggessive swing at the ball and it may have almost hit my friend in the head...oops. We finished the game today with no injuries, thank you very much.

And the food highlight of my day was lunch: black bean, spinach and cheese quesadilla with lots of hummus for dipping.

Matt and I are just sitting down for some wine and a movie. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow!



Friday Fun

I started out my day off with a yummy breakfast. 1/3 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup almond milk, cinnamon, craisins, cut up apple, scoop peanut butter and chia seeds

Then I as off to the grocery store.  It was one of my better tips considering most people were at work today! When I got home Matt and I unloaded the groceries and then headed to the gym for a quick hour workout.  I started with 30 minutes of weights work concentrating on my arms and abs because my butt is killing me from my workout yesterday.  Then I moved on to 30 minutes of cardio split between the bike and the eliptical.  On each machine I varied the intensity level by sprinting for 20 seconds and then working at a normal effort for 1 minute.  This helps me get through a sometimes boring cardio workout.

When we got home I was starving, on the edge of scary hungry Megan.

I made an egg white omlet with spinach, black beans and cheddar cheese with a cup of chobani and some pretzels and apple butter on the side.

I love to eat eggs on the weekend if you haven't noticed.

After some down time Matt and I went to the movie theater so I could finaly see The Hunger Games!!! I loved it!!! I'm currently on book 3 and can't wait to see the rest of the movies. Matt even liked it and he's never read the books.  After the movie we went out to dinner at on of our favorite places, AquaSol.

I got the half portion of the teriyaki salmon with aspargus wrapped in prociutto on the side.

I was feeling like bottomless pit today when it came to food and was really craving some ice cream.  I decided to treat myself to a mini blizzard from DQ.

I love the mini blizzard. As Matt would put it "it's Megan sized." lol.  It hit the spot. I should never go this long without eating ice cream ever again.

So happy that I still have 2 days left in my weekend :)



Butt Kicking Workout!

Today was an extra special day for a couple of reasons. Reason #1 it is my Friday!! Reason #2 Matt returned from his business trip and I no longer have to be a single mom to a very hyper puggle.

Good thing he's cute.

I've been having to get creative with my workouts lately so I could come home right after work to take care of the little man. Today I was back to the gym.  I went in with a plan and followed it to a T.  I started out with a new weights workout that could easily be done at home with a couple sets of dumbbells.

I found this strength training workout on pinterest.  I went through the legs and arm workout twice.

1. Plie with Bicep Curl

12 reps 8lb weights

2. Forward Lunge And Press

12 reps each leg 5lb weights (your arms will be burning after just a few trust me)

3. Squat With Straight Arm Pressback

12 reps.  When you squat down press arms foward.

4. Tip It Over

10 reps each, 8lb weight. I did mine without the chair.

Curtsey Lat Raise

10 reps each, 5lb dumbbells.  This one is killer on the tush!

Afer I went through these exercises twice I moved on to some random ab work then went to the treadmill for my favorite interal workout from Fitness Magazine's website.

	Minutes	Speed	Incline
Warm up	2	4.0 MPH	0
Speed up	5	4.5-6.0	0	Increase speed by 0.5 each MPH minute until you reach 6.0 MPH; maintain for 2 minutes.
Climb	7	4.0-4.5	2.0	Increase incline by 2.0 each minute until you reach 10.0 MPH; stay there for 3 minutes.
Descend	1	6.0	2.0
Sprint	4	Varied	2.0	Sprint (your best effort) for 1 minute, then jog (4.5 MPH); repeat combo, trying to sprint faster the second time.
Climb	1	5.0-6.0	4.0
Climb	4	6.0-7.0	4.0
Recover	1	4.0-4.5	0
Jog	1	5.0-6.0	0
Sprint	2	Best effort	0
Cool down	2	2.0-3.0	0	

When I first did this workout it completely kicked my butt.  But slowly I got better and better with the incline work.  I did change it up a bit for my own abilities.  I wanted to run the whole time so I adjusted the speed for the first climb to between 5.5-6.0.  I also had to adjust the incline for the climb because there is no way I could run at a 10 incline.  Instead of increasing by 2.0 every minute I increased by 1.0 every minute.  I was drenched in sweat by the time I finished. I extended the jog/spint sequence at the end to take me to 3 miles total!

Sweaty hot mess.

When I got home I had leftovers from Sunday night and a cup of coffee with a 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder in it. This is the only way I have found that I can stomach this stuff. The coffee taste comletely covers up the gross taste of the powder! Yay!!



What I Ate Wednesday!

Happy WIAW! It's actually my Thursday becuase my company is awesome and gives us Good Friday off!  I appreciate it and all, but I wish they would give us the Monday after Easter off instead. 

I started off my morning with my usual:

Overnight oats with pomogranate chobani, 1/3 cup old fashioned oats and almond milk.  Granolla, craisins, peanut butter and chia seeds.

My mid morning snack was an apple and some pretzel rods.

Lunch:

I went to the salad bar at a local grocery store and picked up this baby. Salad with chickpeas, broccoli, green peppers, carrots, cucumbers and tuna salad.  Also picked up some fruit with cottage cheese.

I snacked on  half a kashi banana bread granolla bar and an applesauce before I left work to get my through my workout.  I ran 3.08 miles in 26.26.  I wanted to do some interval work so I sprinted during the chorus of songs and jogged during the rest of the songs.  My legs were nice and rested after 2 days off and my run felt fast!!

Dinner:

Tofu scramble with kale, black beans, green peppers, zucchini and topped with cheese. This was my first time making a tofu scramble and it was really good. Tasted very similar to actual eggs.  I added a bunch of garlic powder, cumin and pepper in for more flavor.

I toasted up half a deli flat and topped it with some butter to have on the side.

Chocolate for dessert :)

After dinner I cooked up Matt some of these as a surprise:

Rice crispy treats. I'm the best rice crispy treat maker this side of the mason dixon line haha.  This is Matt's favorite food. One year for his birthday I made him a rice crispy treat cake.  I used three different types of cereal in different sized circles and stacked them like a cake.  Rice crispy treats are how I keep him around haha. We have a deal, I make him rice crispies every now and then and he gets me flowers and chocolate ever now and then. Deal.

I also did some wedding crafting tonight!

Can't wait for our candy buffet. YUM. 

Popped My Tofu Cherry

I did it! I cooked with tofu for the first time.  I don't know why it scared me so much before, because I'm weird.  I purchased the extra firm tofu and planned to use it in a coconut curry.  First I cut up the tofu and cooked it on the stovetop so it would be nice and crispy on the outside.

Then I cooked the remainder of my meal following the recipe for my Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp just replacing the shrimp with tofu and lots of veggies. I cut up some broccoli, carrots, peppers and brussel sprouts. 

I cooked up my veggies with my red curry paste and garlic.  Then I added the cocount milk and tofu and let it simmer for a couple minutes

I served it over brown rice.

So good. I'm having the leftovers tmorrow for lunch!

I also snuck in a good at home workout today. I started out with a 35 minute walk around the neighborhood with Champ. We covered about 2 miles with Champ dragging me for about 1.5 of them until he finally started to get a little warn out.

Then I moved on to doing this workout from Fitness Magazine's website. It's a great workout to do when you are crunched for time.  You only need some 3-8lb dumbbells and a weight bench or stability ball.  I actually ended up using my couch instead of the weight bench.

Sumo Power

Dip and Drag Curl

Good Morning

Side Lunge with Teacup Raise

Lower Half Lift

Rolling Pin

Rainbow Fly

Reverse Fly

Kickstand

De-calf-inator

I went through these exercises twice.  My favorite was the kickstand.  Holy cow was my ars burning! I have a feeling I'll be sore tomorrow. I have my last dress fitting tomorrow night and our invitations are in the mail!!! 



2 A Days

Today was one busy day but I had a blast! I woke up and headed to the gym for a weights only workout.  Matt's friend called him the other day and they decided to go to a local park to mountain bike. I planned to tag along and do a trail run, my first ever, while they were biking. I still wanted to get some weights work in though, so I wound up at the gym for about 45 minutes completing this workout:

Going through this workout 3x took me about 30 minutes.  I finished my workout with 15 minutes of random abs work.  I never really have a plan going into abs work, I just wing it and hope it works out.  When I got home I whipped up an early lunch so that I could digest before we left for the park.

Open faced egg sandwich and an apple. I cooked up some spinach and then poured some egg whites over them, added a bit of cheese and slapped it on half a deli flat.  I also added another secret ingredient:

I spread some guacamole on the bottom of the toast....SO GOOD!!

A few hours later we were of to Lums Pond. I really didn't know what to expect but it was actually really fun. I didn't need my music at all because the surroundings were actually interesting to look at.  I did an out and back route, 25 minutes each way.

Me at the halfway point. Please forgive my horribly oversized sunglasses. I couldn't find my regular ones so I had to resort to these ugly things.

I definitely had to slow my pace down a lot so I didn't trip on all of the twigs and roots.  I also had to stop a few times to figure out which way I should go on the trail.  All together I ran 4.9 miles in about 49 minutes.  When I got home I scarfed a banana and some quaker oatmeal squares cereal to hold me over until dinner.  For dinner I made one of my favorites:

Gnocchi With Spinach and White Beans.  I made mine with whole wheat gnocchi and also added some sausage to the mix to satisfy my carnivore fiance.  I LOVE this meal. So easy and delicious. 

Another plus: I finished addressing all of our wedding invitations. Thank the Lord!! And now I'm off to relax with my two best guys!