Circuit Workout and Addictive Oatmeal Cookies

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a good Monday. Mine actually wasn't half bad. I got a great workout in after work even though I'm still avoiding running until my hip is 100% (feeling so much better than yesterday already).  I was in the mood for a good circuit workout so I put this baby together and boy did it kick my butt:

I have a feeling I'll be sore tomorrow! This took me about 20 minutes to complete. Then I moved on to some cardio.  I did 15 minutes on the stairmaster and 20 minutes walking on different inclines from 0 to 10.  For some reason I always feel like I should be wearing leg warmers and a sweatband when I'm on the stairmaster, but it always makes me sweat. Nobody ever uses those poor machines, I feel bad for them sometimes lol. 

Dinner was leftover BBQ Blue Cheese Turkey Burgers from last week. Leftovers make my life so much easier!

Had my turkey burger on a peice of great harvest dakota toast .

and a salad on the side

It's that time of the month again folks......and that only means one thing. I need to bake.  I was craving cookies,  and this is definitely the time to give in to cravings or your body will just end up hating you more, at least that's my theory. I found this recipe somewhere and adapted it to what I had in my kitchen. They literally took me 20 mintues to make before I was shoving one in my face lol.

Addictive Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup craisins

3 tbsp egg whites

1 tbsp butter softened

1/8 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then add dry ingrdients into wet and mix.  Make 12 cookies around a tbsp each and bake for 12 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before devouring!

One last very important thing. Happy Birthday to my sister Melissa. Can't wait to visit this coming weekend and meet my neice!



Break Out The Grill Baby!

This morning I woke up determined to get my butt to the gym.  I have been going light on my weight training the past weeks to keep my legs fresh for my little 5k! But, my legs had other plans in mind.  My left hip has been bothering me since the race. Nothing major I don't think but I've been icing it today.  I did make it to the gym, but I tried to stick to low impact activities.  I started out with a short weights workout including squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and ab work on the stability ball. I also included some of these:

Lying tricep extension.  I really like this exercise because it not only works your arms but also your abs to keep you stable. I finished off my workout with 45 minutes of cardio split between the bike and the eliptical.  It was a struggle I'm not going to lie.  My body was tired but I wanted to finish. 

I spent the rest of my day procrasinating doing wedding stuff.  I am not one of those brides that loves crafting 24 hours a day so that their wedding is flawless. I'm one of those brides who just wants to get married already so I can go to St. Lucia and don't feel like making more lace lanterns and cute signs. JoAnn fabrics scares me, and I need more lace fabric. I think the people there come from another planet.

After taking champ for a walk, cleaning the house, and reading the Hunger Games book 2 it was just about time for dinner. Matt and I looked at the weather earlier in the week and thought it would be the perfect day to break out the grill for our frist bbq of the year :)  I picked up some steak, veggies and potatoes for our meal.

Steak, onion and gren pepper. I eventually brushed some bbq sauce on them too.

Red potato that I later mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper and old bay and then wrapped up and put on the grill for 10 minutes per side.

Then did the same thing with some brussel sprouts and zucchini.

Manning the grill!

Begging for scraps.

We obviously didn't go too hard last night (my stomach was having none of it) so we had some drinks along with dinner!

Holy cow now that's a lot of food. I finished about half haha. But seriously, best brussel sprouts ever.

Next time I'm dousing the potatoes with old bay because I could barely taste it and I love old bay!

Ok time to get back to my book! Can't stop reading!



5k PR!!

Today was the St. Patty's Day 5k in Wilmington! Matt and I were both hoping to get personal best times.  We woke up bright and early, 7am and the race started at 9:30. 

For breakfast I had a slice of great harvest dakota toast with peanut butter and apple butter.

And then all hell broke loose as it usually does on race morning. My stomach always hates me on mornings of races. I'm positive it's the nerves and there's pretty much nothing I can do about it besides some of my go to remedies:

Today I took pepto. I usually go for immodium but I was out!

organic ginger candies

And then we were off to the race:

It was the perfect day for our run. It started in the 50s and was well into the 60s by the time we finished.  It was a pretty flat course which I appreciated very much. I looked down at my watch after mile one and realized I had just run a sub 8 minute mile. Holy cow. I told myself to slow down because there was no way I was going to keep this up.  I finished mile 2 at 16.30 and realized that getting sub 26 minutes was within reach.  After I saw 3 miles pass I sprinted to the finish and crossed at 25.45!!! Yay I did it. I ran an 8.18 pace, finished 108 out of 400 people and 11th in my age group. 

Matt on the other hand kicked major ass.  He finished in 20.39.  He's pretty much rediculous. He got third in his age group!! So proud!

When I got home I made a good lunch full of protein. I made an eggwhite omelet with broccoli, zucchini, spinach and feta cheese. Then I had my favorite chobani on the side, apple cinnamon.

Look at the steam coming off that baby!

We're taking it easy now and then heading out for some St. Patty's day drinks later tonight!



My First Gym Chat

I'm going to be honest here....I have belonged to my current gym for over a year, and I rarely ever talk to anyone when I'm there. I make no effort to socialize with others. The most I ever do is say hi and then go along my way to my machine.

In fact a regular came up to me once (and by regular I mean I can count on him being there whenever I'm there) and asked me why I looked so serious.  I told him I was tired so we didn't have to do the awkward back and forth of me not being extra chipper that day.  Apparently I give off a bitch vibe at the gym. I don't get it I think I'm a nice person...most of the time lol. But to be honest, when I get to the gym I only have a limited amount of time to get what I want to done before I leave.

However, today was a different story. Someone talked to me...and I actually talked back. I guess I wasn't too into my workout today so I talked to this guy for the 20 minutes that I was on the elliptical.  It wasn't so bad I guess.  Is anyone else the same as me out there? I like to be in the zone when I'm working out so I can get the most out of my time. I feel like some people just go there to socialize. 

My workout turned out pretty well. I started out with 15 minutes of abs workouts on the stability ball including this bad boy:

Killer. Works your abs and your arms.

Then I did a quick arms workout based on some moves I learned in a weights class I took a while ago.  I'll have to do some research and figure out the names of the moves so I can tell you all.  Then I moved on to 20 minutes on the bike on random setting level 8 and 20 minutes on the elliptical on random settting level 8.  Even though I was "socializing" I still walked out of there a sweaty mess. 

Thursdays are always leftover days in our house:

Leftover chili from Monday!!

Handful of veg on the side.

I'm getting really excited for our 5k on Saturday! Fingers crossed for breaking 26! I will be happy with anything under 27 to be honest, but I like to set some goals to reach for. And after the race?? St. Patty's day fun!  Oh crap, just realized I have no green in my closet. I'll need to fix that. 



What I Ate Wednesday!

Hosted by Peas and Crayons

My favorite day of the week.  Hump day thank the lord. This has been one long week.  I started off my morning with the best way I know how. Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats aka my breakfast 3 times a week.

1/4 cup old fashioned oats, 1/3 cup plain nonfat chobani, 1/3 cup pumpkin, cinnamon,  1/4 cup almond milk, spoonful of peanut butter on top :)

After a busy morning at work I was in need of a snack at about 9:30.  I love when my breakfast gets me 3 hours!

strawberries, pineapple, cottage cheese

and

yummy dried fruit and nut mix

11:30 rolls around and i'm ready for my always early lunch

I sauteed up some asparagus, zucchini and broccoli and stuck in on top of two slices of turkey on a whole wheat wrap.  I also had an apple on the side. Right before I left work I had some pretzels to tide me over until dinner.

I wasn't feeling a hard workout today, so I went home to spend some time with my guys and do some cleaning. My muslces are pretty sore from my last two workouts and I just haven't been feeling 100% this week.  I try to always listen to my body, especially when it tells me I need a day off.  I usually end up taking two rest days a week. Even though it's a rest day I still wanted to do something so I took Champ for a walk around the neighborhood.

 

It was a nice walk, but of course it was a bit on the slow side since Champ feels the need to do this at ever mailbox, lamp pole, patch of grass, tree:

Such a man. Mark that spot! All in all we walked for about 35 minutes. 

Dinner was quick tonight. I feel like I usually do the majority of my "special" cooking in the beginning of the week and by the end it's just whatever is quick and leftovers. Tonight we made up some tuna melts and salads. Perfect combo if you ask me.

The secret to my tuna salad?? Greek yogurt. I hate mayo, I always have. Somehow I always just imagine it being able to move on it's own haha. So I replaced it with plain greek yogurt and mixed in some craisins.  I put it on a whole wheat deli flat and topped it with some cheese. With a delicious (and pretty according to Matt) salad.

I'm off to cup up a pear for dessert with a peice of hershey's bliss dark chocolate on the side.  Then I'm going to try to look for some recipes for next week. Anybody have any good ones out there?



Gorgeous Day....Horrible Run

I can't believe how hot it got today! I was literally sweating all day at work because our building's heating/air conditioning unit sucks. Apparently it heats the building when it's 75 degrees out and turns on the AC when it's 40 degrees out lol. 

I knew my stomach wasn't having such a great day today.  After I ate my lunch of greek yogurt and a peanut butter deli flat, my stomach was not happy. What in the meal could have made it so upset?? I have no idea. It always baffles me. Ever since my bachelorette party it has been...well off.  It settled as the day went on so I figured it would be fine for a run. Plus I didn't want to miss the great weather sitting inside.

I set out for my usual 4 mile loop around campus. At around 20 minutes I started feeling a bit off, but kept going. At 27 minutes I got this shooting pain in my side. I think my stomach was doing this:

I was forced to walk the rest of the way back to work. At least I finished 3 miles, but I was in some major pain. It felt like some huge bubble was just sitting in my stomach and it wouldn't come out.  When I got home I took it easy for a bit and eventually started feeling better.

Then it was time for dinner. On the menu...Bethenny Frankel's BBQ Blue Cheese Turkey Burgers.  These are by far my favorite turkey burgers ever, because I'm obsessed with blue cheese.

I had mine bunless over some spinach with some veggies on the side. I also cooked up a sweet potato at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Have I mentioned that I can't wait until we get new plates for our wedding??

My goal for this weekend is to work on supplies for our candy buffet at the wedidng. I saw this other idea on pinterest for a trail mix buffet and I really liked it...however, most people that I talked to said it was lame compared to a candy buffet. Matt's exact words..."not everyone is like you." hahah. I was overruled. But look how cute:

I'll still be happy with the candy buffet though, as long as there's plenty of dark chocolate.



Chili on a Warm Day

I think I was pretty much a walking zomby today.  I'm still recovering from Atlantic City.  After work I wanted to go to the gym for some abs and arms work and a fast run on the treadmill.  Matt and I signed up for a 5k this Saturday to try and get in the swing of things again now that it's getting warm out.  I have a time in mind that I really want to push for on Saturday.  My fastest 5k time so far is around 26.30 and this weekend I'm really want to get below 26 minutes.  Today, on the treadmill I finished in 25.50.  I'm going to be right on the edge of 26 so I hope I can push through!!

Dinner tonight was super easy.  I found this recipe on pinterest that I threw together in the crockpot this morning before I left for work.  I unfortunately didn't have corn so I made my chili without it.  I thought I had corn and then I went to open the can and realized it was creamed corn and almost threw up in my mouth.  When I got home from they gym the house smelled amazing!

YUM! This one's going in the recipe box. 

Backtracking.....after I went to the gym I felt like I needed a little pick me up on my way home.  I looked in the fridge at my gym and spotted muscle milk light.

I always hear about all the benefits of chocolate milk after working out so I thought I would give it a go.  I glanced pretty quickly at the front and just read muscle milke and then I checked the back real quick, saw 150 calories, 3g of sugar and 20g of protein. Looked good to me.

So I'm sipping it in my car and glance at the front again and see "contains no milk." What?? I thought it was milk!!??  Then I got confused and decided to look at the ingredients.  I couldn't pronounce half of them. I stopped drinking it right then and there.  What happened to good old fashioned chocolate milk?? 

Another product of recently tried is quaker oatmeal squares.

I had a coupon and decided to try it.  They are actually pretty good. Very filling being made of oatmeal and just enough sweetness to not be too overpowering.  I love to throw them on top of yogurt for some extra crunch. And the first two ingredients...whole grain oat flour, whole wheat flour. Now that's what I'm talkikng about. Threre are 9g of sugar per serving which isn't too bad and 6g of protein which is great!  I'm excited to try some more flavors. 

Matt just informed me that he purchased a cake topper when I was gone this weekend...I'm gonna go check it out. Sounds funny (which is what I wanted)!