bust A move

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Just another boring day back at the grind here in Calgary. Ugh. (I would rant about this whole not working and being in a different country with no friends and family thing, but you’d just x out of the whole post. and we don’t want that)

I cleaned. LAME

I went to Wal-Mart. LAMER

I did homework on ethnic subcultural marketing strategies. LAMESAUCE.

But, I painted my nails some awesome colors.

I made sure to get all the laundry done prior to painting. Nothing is worse than having to do something immediately after doing your nails. And I had to put the duvet back on the comforter. I may have mentioned this before, but that is my SINGLE MOST hated chore. I would rather scrub toilets and express my dog’s anal glands than deal with that stupid piece of fabric.

I also cleaned the coffee table which made for a fabulous black backdrop in this photo.

Oh wait. There was an exciting thing. The FedEx man came to the house. Yes, it’s a sad thing when making small talk with the FedEx guy about the weather is a highlight to your day.

Sidenote: Speaking of weather, I never understood why people must always discuss the weather. Talking about it doesn’t change it. Does the cashier at Safeway care to hear your thoughts on upcoming clouds? No. Neither does the FedEx guy, I found out. I always make fun of my parents when I catch them having a serious conversation about the big W. And now, here I am following in their footsteps. Mom, you’re laughing now!

So the FedEx guy brought my textbooks for my last semester of grad school. $330 for two books. OR SO I THOUGHT THEY WERE BOOKS. Ummm…what is this??!

It appears they forgot to put a cover and a spine on this $110 ‘book’. Thank goodness they went through the trouble of at least 3-hole punching it.

On to greener pastures: Today’s workout.

I had no motivation for dealing with creeps at the gym, and I have had some shin pain since I went rollerblading last week, so I decided to bust out a nice little workout of my own at home.

bust A move

Today’s workout emphasized my current favorite exercise, single leg dead lifts. (The video demonstrates with one weight. I held a 10 pound weight in each hand. Your choice)

After a 5 minute cardio (of choice) workout, I did THREE sets of:

12 single leg dead lifts on each leg
90 seconds cardio (of choice)

Followed by a pyramid of:

10 pushups
20 crunches
30 high knees
40 alternating front kicks
50 second wall sit
40 alternating front kicks
30 high knees
20 crunches
10 pushups

and then…………I did it all again.

Nice, wonderful, lovely, sweaty workout for my monday evening. You should try it. And then let me know what you think.

Anyone doing something exciting this week? I’m mopping the floors tomorrow!!!

You snooze

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi there, ho there.

Today started with a supah long walk with Layla.

Followed by a generous portion of eggs benedict, courtesy of my other half.

Apparently those two things pooped out my lil family.

I planned on working out, but I can’t blast my music while those precious gems are catching some zzz’s. So, rather than letting time waste, I did 200 situps on the stability ball. Once they wakeup, I’ve got some sweet strength circuits lined up.

Guess what? Athena blogged about my bachelorette party! You should check it out here.

Guess what else? I weighed myself this morning and I am .4 lbs UNDER my ideal weight. I jumped for joy for so long, I probably lost another .2 lbs. I am hoping this super drop in weight isn’t solely attributed to my trip bak to the states, so I’m gonna have to really look at the differences in my eating/exercise/daily habits so I can stay on track. Not that I’m all about the number, but I have been working really hard lately, and me feeling good, accompanied by a lower number on the scale is a pretty dang good feeling. Anyone else feel this way?

Pretty laid back Sunday in this household. My family is snoozing, and I’m sitting in the sun drinking my [new low] weight in water.

What are you up to?

Back to liiiiife.

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Greetings from Calgary. Yesterday was just a clusterf*ck of whatthehellisgoingon. I got to the Albany airport at O’dark thirty, checked my bags, then got to the gate and found out I was bumped to a different flight. I was planning on having a nice 9 hour layover in Chicago and hang with Katie, but I was sent directly to Calgary. Except my bags still stopped in Chicago and hung out for a few hours, so that was awesome.

As soon as I got back, THIS happened

Sodastream!

Seriously, no complaints. Since I can’t get any of my beloved La Croix here, I will gladly try to make my own sparkling water. We also picked up a sample pack of flavors.

There was just about every flavor EXCEPT the calorie free ones that I wanted (we ended up buying some of those today. And they’re good. In case you were wondering.)

The next 20 minutes was a blur because before I knew it, we bought some of this stuff:

I was all “what?”

And Tyler was all “yuh huh”

So naturally, we combined our two new purchases, threw in a wedge of grapefruit, and this is what happened:

So. The next time you find yourself with a bunch of extra cash (MOM GUESS WHAT. I saved Tyler $76 dollars on the Sodastream because I had a 20% off coupon AND a $50 gift card. I am so good) I recommend you buy yourself a Sodastream, buy the Pink Grapefruit flavor, snag a bottle of Absolut Grapevine, throw ’em all together and BAM, you have a party. Holy cannoli are they tasty.

We also watched The Five Year Engagement last night. Yeah, it was funny, but there was a huge depressing section of the movie that I could have done without. PS: For any of you who have seen the movie, my wedding planning style is exactly like the end of the movie.

Yesterday’s workout: Attempting to pop a squat in the airplane bathroom during turbulence.

******

Today, I got back to long walks with the pup. Love this view.

Back to the long walks also means I am back to staring at this butt at least 90 minutes every day

And picking up what comes out of said butt.

But we are besties, so I deal with it.

Today’s workout: Walk with Layla. See above in case you forgot already. 60 minutes of Kix thanks to the new CD Liz gave me when I was in Boston two weeks ago. Thanks, Liz!

Guest Post: Apple, yogurt and coconut muffins

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey Nutcaseinpoint readers. 🙂

My name is Jodie and I’m an Aussie expat, nutritional medicine student, avid tea drinker, and the blogger behind Jo’s Jam Jar.

I found Jen’s fun blog a while back and empathized with her move to a new country, as I moved to the U.S. last year with my husband.

I also love reading about Jen’s workouts (especially the strength ones) – and attempting to copy them. I love hiking, biking, swimming, yoga, and basically all things water-based and/or outdoors, but when it comes to gym workouts, I’m kind of clueless, so I love Jen’s point of view on exercise. Now if she could just come to my gym and show me how to use some of the more intimidating equipment, that would be great.

Jen asked me if I was interested in writing a guest post and I thought I would share an easy muffin recipe with you guys. Plus I have an essay I need to finish, so I felt like baking.

This is a simple recipe, using the classic wet and dry system of baking. I like to add a little nutrition to my treats, so these guys are sweetened without processed sugar and have a good dose of essential omega-3 fatty acids, potassium, fiber, manganese, and zinc. One muffin has around 140 calories, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I bet they would be great with some fresh apple chunks and nuts folded in to the batter if you want to fancy them up a bit. Enjoy as a quick breakfast muffin, as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea, or on your next road trip.

Safe travels back to Calgary Jen, and I hope you all have an awesome weekend!

Apple, yogurt and coconut muffins

Ingredients:

Dry:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

¼ cup milled flaxseed

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch of fine sea salt

Wet:

½ cup applesauce

¼ cup coconut oil

6oz tub plain coconut milk yogurt (or your favorite yogurt)

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.

2. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients and whisk together to combine well. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and combine until smooth.

3. Spoon batter into lined or greased muffin cups, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until skewer inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean and tops of muffins spring back when pressed. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in muffin tray, then transfer to wire cooling for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Share and enjoy!

Thanks so much, Jodie! Be sure to check out her blog…as for me, I should be back to regular programming once I’m north of the border. Sad face because I won’t be near my friends and fam; happy face because I’ll be back with Tyler and my puppydawg Layla!

Seven Steps to this Humpday

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

HHD, folks. (Happy Humpday for short.)

Jumping right into it, since I suck as smooth transitions, here we go:

1. Yesterday, I posted about my upper body workout. But I also did Tina’s total body circuit workout from Best Body Bootcamp. The best part about that workout? She had us do 6-8 reps of each exercise with a heavier weight immediately followed by using a lighter weight and performing the same exercise until fatigue. It’s totally a great way to change up your workout without really changing it. (I’m talking to you: people who think that doing bicep curls only will make you sexy.) Oh, and I did the workout in my family room, while my mom sat next to me, and we were watching the finale of Design Star All- Stars (neither of us saw a single episode of the season, so naturally it made sense to watch this. hear the sarcasm?)

2. Breakfast this morning was a little trip to Coffee Planet

Sorry about the butt shot, mom. I told you I was talking a pic, but you continued to walk right in.

And I had the world’s largest bagel.

Ok, ok, it’s actually an everything bagel, but I took the liberty of renaming it. I would be lying if I said this thing had zero carbs, but that’s what I told myself the whole 732 minutes it took me to eat it.

Those were probably two worst two sentences I have ever written in my life. I’m too lazy to hold the backspace key to make changes.

Mom had a hot chocolate that reminded me of Harry Potter

Anyone else think of the ‘ol HP??

3. I got my first pedicure since prom.

Mom took me since she had to get her nails filled. Thank God I shaved my legs last night. Oh, and apparently since my last pedicure, salons have had major upgrades. I’m talking about those massage chairs. UM WHAT?! Had I known I was gonna get a little back rub with my polish, I would have made it back sooner! HOWEVER. This massage chair was NOT what I was expecting.

Um, yeah. That part was awkward. Especially since it was a guy doing my nails and I was all “OOOooo my butt!” and then made a somewhat pleased expression. I cringe to think what HE was thinking.

4. I finally found the necklace I have been looking for forever!

It’s the Karma necklace from Dogeared.

“But wait!” you say, “If you are providing the link, why didn’t you just order it online if you wanted it so badly?”

Good question, readers. Good question.

I am no stranger to online purchases. But for some reason I wanted to actually see it and touch it and hold it before buying it. Because I am weird like that.

Basically what I’m saying is, I just didn’t think to buy in online.

I’ve also realized from this picture that I should probably make an appointment with a Dermatologist.

Anyhoo, I found this gem at Sterling & Company along with a few other goodies that I can’t post because they are gifts to some people who read this here itty bitty blog.

5. We visited my apple dumplings at Sutton’s. These are one of my top favorite foods that I would probably ask for these if I was on death row and had my last meal request. Well, that and Pyramid Apricot Ale. And In-n-Out. I am so having these on the dessert table at my wedding. Athena, I’ll be hiring you for a ‘morning-after-wedding’ workout.

6. We somehow made our way up to Lake George, and I managed to see a moose! And a bear!