Latests 11/21

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Yay, it’s Thursday again! (not as great as Friday, from a work aspect, but quickly becoming my favorite blog-day of the week. WAIT. NO. I love Winesday Wednesday, too. AH MAN, this is a dilemma.)

I really do love sharing stuff I’ve come across lately- whether it’s crap I buy, do, see, yadda yadda (‘yadda yadda’ NOT being used as a verb here, English Majors). And I’ve got some more cool stuff to share with you this week!

1. So I cut my hair this weekend. 6 inches to be exact. Only 2 people have noticed. 6 inches is a LOT (that’s what she DIDN’T say! oooooooooo snap) But my hair was pretty dang long, so I guess it didn’t make that much of an impact. Of course, at the end of my appointment I was suckered in to buying a Christmas gift set of some pretty nice products. Womp goes the wallet. It’s totally getting wrapped and put under the tree for myself.

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This isn’t the exact set I got, but it looks pretty similar!

2. Gastropost! So this is a pretty neat website- they set weekly food ‘missions’ for people to snap photos of foods/meals that meet the particular mission and post then on social media using their hashtag. Some of the best are taken and put in the local paper! Apparently this has been going on in other big cities in Canada and it was just launched in Calgary this week. In fact, I was contacted by the lovely lady who is running this shindig to see if I wanted to be a part of it. UM OF COURSE. I take way too many pictures of my food- and now I can get in the paper for it! Sweet and yummy deal right there.

3. A couple of weeks ago, I kinda slammed Lady Gaga’s lastest album. I’m still not loving the majority of the tracks, but after watching her on SNL, I’m sort of obsessed with this song. And the outfit she wore performing the song. It’s been stuck in my head ALL week and I know I’m probably scaring Tyler with random fits of screaming ‘DO WHATCHA WANT, WHATCHA WANT WITH MY BODY.”

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4. I didn’t post about this because I was going to wait until I actually bought it, but now that I know it’s sold out I will proceed to RANT about how upset I am at myself for not purchasing it the DAY it came out: Benefit’s Advent Calendar. Ugh, I would NOT stop talking about it for weeks, and when Tyler actually tried to go get it for me and suprise me with it, he was told it’s sold out everywhere. Insert a night full of tears. Then insert an email I got about THE TWELVE DAYS OF ESSIE. Nail polish, my friends, is AMAZING. I am addicted (remember I went to SEVEN different drug stores to find For the Twill of It?!). In attempts to get me to shut up from my Benefit FOMO, he offered to buy me the Essie gift set. SO I ORDERED IT BEFORE HE COULD FINISH HIS SENTENCE. It gets shipped the first week of December. And I’m so excited. And it’s only available in Canada, so SUCK IT AMERICA. (no no, America, I’m totally kidding. I love you and your Trader Joes and In-n-Outs and lower taxes and amusement parks and Bravo network).

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5. I really love creating my own workouts (this is where I puff my chest and boast about being a group ex instructor and all that jazz. But not jazzercise.) but every once in a while- since I no longer take any group ex classes, I love to rely on other people’s workouts. The past two weeks, I happened to do just that. Below are links to some of the workouts I’ve tried- and really liked!

Athena posted two workouts not long ago and I’ve done both- A bosu/row workout and a total body blast
Blonde Ponytail’s workouts: Till My Thighs Don’t Touch; Gym Tabata Workout; and Dumb Bells Only HIIT Workout
Burpees to Bubbly posted a 3-2-1 UXF Burn workout
Tina Reale’s workouts: Upper Body and Lower Body Burnout; and Drop It Like It’s Hot

6. The Chimes Ginger Chews– I’ve seen these all over instgram and the internet, and never gave them any thought because, YUCK I don’t like ginger. But, I needed to make change for a $20 the other day, and opted to buy a small pack of their orange flavored- chews. They were actually kind interesting…in a good way. The chews has good flavor at first, then they had a big KICK of spice. And since I’ve been somewhat of a spice whore as of late, I accidentally ate the whole pack.

That’s it for this week, what are some of your latests?!!

Friday Thingamajigs

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

1Has anyone ever tried Elevate Me bars? Tyler recently bought a box and I received one for free from our local supplement store. Since I still had lots of Quest Bars in the house, I opted to finish those off before even giving the Elevate Me bars a shot. (It usually takes me 3 attempts to finish a Quest Bar because they are so filling!)

The verdict? They’re so tasty! Think Larabar meets extra protein. Plus, the bar is divided into 3 portions, so it’s easy just to have a bit for an energy boost or to curb hunger. So far, I have tried the Chocolate Acai Berry Brownie and the Cocoa Coconut Cluster. It’s not often I find a bar I like, but these definitely pass the test!

2. Remember when I went to a kickboxing class a couple weeks ago? Well, I must’ve kicked the bag way hard because I still have scabs on the tops of my feet. No bueno when the wedding is coming up in TWO WEEKS. But hey, I gots mad skillz.

3. Some days ya got it, and some days ya don’t. In my case: I have found that days I do strength training, I am barely bendy in yoga, and days I do only cardio, I am super bendy. It’s cool cause I have accepted it, and it is making for some interesting classes!

4. Reminding myself it could always be worse:

5. Will someone please send me a bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips? Thanks

6. When I want people to get back to me ASAP.

7. This is seriously one of my favorite songs of all time. And the video is one of my faves as well.

8. This is a little video for my fellow Calgary friends. Since there is some massive flooding/rain/gross weather, this gives light on how to entertain yourselves. I’m totally doing it.

Time to ~~booze~~ workout.

Tell me something about your week!

Exercise & Eats

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey there. I swear to God there were at least a half a billionty things I thought of over the weekend that I wanted to blog about….and then I forgot like all of them. DAYUM.

Last week’s eats: all of them were easy peasy. Honestly, I forgot what the hell I ate on Monday. And I’ve tried jogging my memory all morning (jogging a memory? Don’t get how that came to be a phrase).

Tuesday: Roasted veggies with brown rice and chicken breast. Seriously, so easy. But it was a well rounded meal.

Wednesday: Pesto Chicken Paninis. I made some homemade pesto, added thinly sliced cooked chicken, tomatoes, and monterey jack.

Thursday: Scrambled Egg Sandwich. With leftover monterey jack, ketchup and sriracha! I had loaded up on veggies during the day, so I didn’t miss them in my dinner.

Friday: Pizza. Lazy man’s dinner, but so tasty! Tyler had football practice and I went to yoga, so we were both pretty happy to plop on the couch with a few pieces o’ pie.

Last week’s workouts were good, too!

Monday: Hot Yoga, 20 minute HIIT on the treadmill (90 seconds brisk walk, 30 seconds ALL OUT SPRINT), Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises pre-wedding workout.

Tuesday: Hot Yoga, 20 min spin, another WH Athlete’s Workout (used lots of cable exercises and core work!)

Wednesday: Hot Yoga, sprints outside up and down the street (followed by one cat and a big ass bunny), another WH Athlete’s Workout- completed at home and SUPER sweaty.

Thursday: Hot Yoga

Friday: Hot Yoga

Saturday: Hot Yoga

Sunday: Off

Yes yes, lots of hot yoga. But um…I paid for a month unlimited, so I’m stretching my dollar as far as it will go! So far, I have only stuck to the Traditional Hot Yoga class (same format every class) and I have LOVED it. Today I am trying the Baptiste Vinyasa class. Super excited! Plus, you guys…this yoga business is getting my bod ready for the upcoming trip to NY. wink wink

Also, today is the start of the next round of Best Body Bootcamp. I have participated in the last four rounds, and just really like getting 8 weeks of pre-determined workouts. I find I always get myself in ruts: I either stick to some of the same exercises, or I am not seeing any benefits or results from my workouts. By changing it up with what BBB provides, it really just keeps me motivated to workout because I love trying new stuff.

Things totally unrelated to exercise and eats that I feel necessary to share:

I CANNOT stop listening to this song. Over and over. And over. And….over. And yes, I’m dancing to it like a loony in front of my dogs. They are not entertained whatsoever.

If I were to go camping, I would NEED to do so in this tent:

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The puppies actually got to get some sun yesterday! Cute little beasts

We managed to watch all of season 2 of Spartacus. HOLY. The show is crazy intense and I love it. Plus, male full frontal. I mean..c’mon. (yeah yeah there are naked ladies in it too)

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This kid filled out mad libs LIKE A BOSS. props to her (and I would do the same)

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Any good eats lately? New workouts? I wanna know!

Hi Internet

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi Internet. I haven’t been around much because….well, just because. Not much to excite you with as of late, I guess. But I do have some things to share before I mentally check out for the weekend.

1. I have gone to hot yoga every day this week, and each day has been a completely different practice for me. I think it’s so crazy that one day I find it easy, another day feels impossible, and yet another class I am practically laying on the mat through each move. Last night’s class was my favorite because I was able to push myself a bit further into some beautiful postures.

Dancer’s Pose (I got my HEEL above my head..like this:)

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Toe Pose:

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2. The world now apparently has Fluffy Cows. I need to find out where these are and go hug one of those suckers.

3. Hey, remember when blogs/twitter/instagram/facebook were just people’s way of posting original thoughts and fun stuff? Well now they have all evolved into obnoxiously obvious ways of gross promotion. 75% of my Instagram feed consists of ads, 90% of my twitter feed are retweets, shameless brand plugs, and other lame things that no longer amuse me; and my blogroll is now filled with blogs that seem to jam pack as many sponsored posts in as possible. I have seen some social media ‘biggies’ that are ambassadors for an array of products that aren’t even in the same category, yet they nor the company seem to mind since the audience reach is just so large. I’m not going to take you seriously if one day you’re promoting cheese and the next day you’re promoting something non-dairy. I just don’t get it. Well, actually I do. Those bloggers get free crap, then they get to give away that free crap which will increase their number of followers on various forms of social media. Then, the company will sponsor them to go to events, and really, who turns down a free, all-expenses paid trip, regardless of the premise? End rant. (please take no offense, alright?)

4. Single serving microwave chocolate chip cookies. Yes, they are fantastic. It’s enough to hit the spot without having to bake a huge batch of cookies- and there is no additional temptation to eat half the batch. I use this recipe, and have been toppinig it with a variety of things like fruit, nuts, and homemade almond milk ‘frosting’.

5. My wedding is in 22 days. There, that’s all I’m gonna say that’s wedding related. If I should rant about another thing, it’s social media and big life events. I get that they’re exciting, but hot dang, no one needs to know every little detail. Sure I might have said I bought my dress or visited the venue or whatever, but I didn’t write a 1000 word essay about it. You won’t care. Plus, I don’t have 1000 words to say about it. Or my invitation selection. This is just about my only huge life event so far (besides moving to Canada, but I guess since not everyone does that I found it necessary to write about in case anyone was considering doing it. In which case, don’t. It was A LOT OF WORK. PAPERWORK. Like, remember when you filled out all those college applications and your hand would cramp? Before then, you never had your SSN memorized, but it was ETCHED in your brain by the time you were done. ps: I ended up writing the WRONG social security number on all my applications, because my mother told me the wrong number, so that was fun to deal with.) So yeah, I’ll probably post some pics after the wedding, but I’m not going to give you a 100 different recaps on every little event. Same goes for when I get pregnant. I guarantee you already know by now how big fetuses are in certain stages of gestation, and all that jazz. And do you really want to know when I crave weird foods or buy maternity pants? No, because it’s most likely a given. End rant. (Actually, some days I eat so much that I already need maternity pants, sans baby in belly. Just food.) Again, take no offense.

6. Wait, so I guess one more thing about the wedding: I’m excited to PARTAY.

7. So, I don’t have an acne problem or anything, but since I ALWAYS wear crops when I workout, I tend to get minor breakouts on my legs. Gross, I know. I finally bought some Neutrogena body scrub (since I use their facewash) in the hopes that it might help eliminate some of those little red sweat bumps. Only thing it’s done so far is make me crave grapefruit every time I shower.

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So yeah, everything, I MEAN EVERYTHING here is labeled in both French and English. Understandably. In the case of the body wash, I just laugh because grapefruit in french makes me laugh. Click here to hear it. But seriously, when I buy something that has cooking instructions or something, I get so lost looking between both languages. Sounds silly, but look at the back of a box of rice and try to recite the instructions in Engligh RIGHT AWAY. Guarantee you’ll see the French first and be like

8. Hey, does anyone want to write a guest post for me? It can be on anything– since my posts usually are. You can talk about fitnessy stuff, foods, BOOZE, the shape of your most recent poop…whatever.

9. Every summer, I get the urge to buy a bathing suit. I really have no idea why, because I NEVER wear them, and when I do, there are usually clothes over them, or I’m completely submerged in a body of water. NOT A LAKE. I freaking hate lakes. HATE LAKES. They’re pretty to look at, sit by, boat on, but not swim in. Why? Because the water is so dark, you can’t see your feet. And who knows what lake creatures there are in the lake. Fish? HELLS NO PEOPLE. I do not tolerate no stinking fishies. I do remember one summer in college my parents and I and my ex boyfriend went out on the lake on our boat. When we got to the center, my dad anchored and my ex jumped in to swim. Not me, I was in my bathing suit with my clothes worn over them and perfectly happy in the sun. BUT NOOOOOOOOO my mom thought it would be funny to push me in. Guys, I’m a good swimmer and all, but I screamed bloody murder. I was kicking my legs SO HARD in an effort to practically propel my body out of the water. After a dozen or so screams (and I’m sure some broken blood vessels in my face) my mom finally threw me a bunch of life vests so that I could make a make-shift floating device and SEE all of my extremities. I could have punched my mother for that one.

10. I honestly have no idea how, but I’ve stopped drinking coffee. And we just got a Tassimo machine. Hmmm..

11. All my workouts this week (in addition to HY) have been from the Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises. It got me to start using the cable machines, which I haven’t in a LONG time. The moves target the same muscles in some of the free weight exercises I have been doing, but SLOW DOWN SUZY they made me sore. Basically, I have been a happy, sore lady all week.

12. Ok, I haven’t been happy ALL the time. There are stresses with the job hunt and what not. If I get into THAT, you’ll be reading yet another rant. And I think 2 is plenty for this post.

13. I haven’t craved a drink all week. Does that mean I need anti-intervention? I guess the weather has been so on and off that my body can’t decide what it wants.

14. I should probably change out of my nightgown and turn some lights on now, because it’s totally not acceptable on a Friday afternoon. I think yoga pants and the glow of the TV should suffice.

Catching Up…and a recipe!

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

So let’s do a life catch up. Mainly just stuff that’s happened in the past few days.

-Saturday morning we headed over to the beer/wine supply place to buy a new kit to brew some raspberry ale. To our surprise, the guy gave us quite a few generously poured samples of various wines he had made at his house. They were all fantastic. But he was pouring them fast, so we had to drink faster. Awesome, I got buzzed for free. PS: so excited to try our first home-brewed fruit beer! They’re my fave.

– We then headed over to check out the grand opening of Community Natural Foods in our neighborhood. There, we lucked out with some free sausage samples, so it helped with the wine consumption.

My opinion of the store? Definitely better than the other local natural foods store, but still not even CLOSE to a Whole Foods or TJ’s.

-Saturday night was a long-planned date night. First stop: Saltlik for dinner. I had been to the location in Banff a few times, but we found that the downtown location had a different menu/ambiance/etc. Not as spectacular (only because the downtown spot doesn’t have scalloped potatoes! ha) but the steak was still fantastic.

We finished dinner a bit early, so we walked over to another pub and had a few drinks. Then..

– Cirque De Soleil! The tent in Calgary was for the show Amaluna. Tyler had never been to a Cirque show before, but I have seen some in both California and Vegas. I didn’t care for this show as much, but it was still entertaining!

– We concluded the night with a stupid scary movie that I thankfully didn’t get any nightmares from.

-Sunday, we added a new member to the family- Reggie!

Reggie is a 4.5 year old Beagle (maybe half pocket beagle). He wasn’t ever in a foster home or shelter, but his doggy mama had to find a new home for him since her son was allergic. We totally lucked out because it is super good- potty trained, obedient, friendly, no health problems. His mama even gave us all his beds and toys and leashes and food and treats.

So far, so good. He only barks when people are out front or the doorbell rings (same as Layla). And they have been getting along really well. Lots of quiet play, lots of lounging on the patio, and lots of cuddles and treats. Of course, both dogs now have their designated spots on the bed which just so happen to be immediately on either side of me. I was mummified in the sheets last night!

Only catch is his love of sitting on top of the couch. Still need to figure out the best solution of covering the leather so he doesn’t wear or tear anything.

I told Layla to blink once if he can stay in the house with us. This was her response:

I think that’s a yes.

Ok, now onto a really yummy recipe.

SO..I knew I wanted to bake something this morning, but the challenge was to figure out what exactly I could make that didn’t include chocolate or brown sugar as an ingredient (I was fresh out of both and didn’t couldn’t jet to the store since I was in between 2 phone interviews). I fuddy-duddied around the kitchen for a few minutes before deciding on this delicious concoction:

Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bars (adapted from this recipe)

They’re great because they contain all good ingredients, they’re quick and easy to make, and they keep pretty well (in freezer). Not only that, but the ingredients are substantial, so each bar will satisfy any hunger craving. This really yields about 8 bars, but since it was my initial go with the recipe, I played with the edges before I took any pictures.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 bananas
1 c oats
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup coconut
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I made a mixture of walnuts, macadamia nuts and cashews and pulsed in the food processor a few times)
1 t vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
dash of salt