Let’s rewind.

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I somehow how a little time before getting food ready for the big game that I have decided to catch up on my recent things on these here blog.

I somewhat touched base as I was sitting in the Albany airport, but that doesn’t really count. Let’s rewind to Wednesday night…

Ok, so Wednesday night (my last night in New York) I got dressed after the workout I did at home and headed out to dinner at my FAVORITE local restaurant with mom and dad.

Outfit: American Apparel leggings and a top I scored from JCPenney.

Dinner was at Bistro LeRoux. I seriously cannot praise this place enough. The food, atmosphere and service are all so fantastic. I ended up having Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling, 1/2 order of crab cakes, 1/2 order of poached pear salad with steak, and a lava cake with peanut butter ice cream. I’m not really good at writing about my full experience, but let’s just say that I was ‘mmm-ing’ with every bite. Ahhhh, so good! I can’t wait for my next visit home so I can go there again 🙂

As I was packing later that night, I came across my high school prom dresses. Feel free to laugh at how ugly they are!

That really concludes my trip home. Although, I did manage to wake up at O-dark-thirty on Thursday morning to get in a 40 minute run on the treadmill. I watched a Jillian Michaels infomercial to keep me motivated.

My trip home was a long one. Having a layover in Chicago in the middle of winter is practically a death sentence. My first plane was 45 minutes late, but made good time getting into O’hare. I chilled out for what was supposed to be only a 2 hour layover and had me one of these suckers:

I also had a steak salad, but didn’t take a picture because I was hungry and ate it. Duh.

I then walked all over the terminal not only for exercise, but also because the incoming plane for my gate was super delayed (I was also on the prowl for some good chocolate).

Well, I didn’t fin the chocolate that I wanted, but I ended up settling with a bag of these:

They look like GIANT malt balls

But they are SUPER WEIRD on the inside.

I also managed to take advantage of the DUTY FREE shop! I have never done that before, so it was an interesting experience.

I made my purchase, showed them my boarding pass and ID, then got a receipt with a pick-up tag. The attendant would then meet me at my gate and hand me my purchase as I was boarding the plane. Nothing like being able to carry a big ass bottle of Grey Goose on a plane!

A few hours later, I was home and reunited with my puppy!

And now begins the dog pictures. You have been warned.

Tyler and I enjoyed the first bottle of home brewed wine (It was REALLY good!) and watched the first two episodes of The Following (also REALLY good!) The show was intense.

Friday, I was left at home to get back into my routine. The morning was filled with lounging, house-things, and puppy cuddles.

My workout was the Endurance workout from Best Body Bootcamp (supersets of exercises to be repeated until you reach 100- same as last Friday). I busted them out as I watched recorded episodes of The Mindy Project. After I ran out of episodes- and finished my strength workout- I headed over to the gym for a sweaty 14 miles on the bike. I really missed the Keiser bikes while I was in New York. Oh right, and Layla joined in on my strength stuff. Forgot to mention that.

She was so excited to see me put my coat and shoes on to go to the gym, that I felt bad and ended up taking her for a walk as soon as I got home. She was kinda rude about it, but whatever.

Apparently I didn’t take her on as good of a walk as Tyler has been doing the last few weeks, so as soon as he got home, she was all over him. Traitor.

We rounded out the night with tacos and watched Flight (so glad I waited until after my trip to watch that movie!)

On to Saturday. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. YUM. And lots of coffee. YUMMx2. Then errands.

One of our stops was the mall so that I could pick up my earrings from Tiffany & Co. I had dropped them off last month when one of my screwbacks kept popping off. As the associate unwrapped my earrings, I noticed that not only did they not replace the backing, but they completely reset the diamonds in different posts WITH different (ugly) backings! And the backings wouldn’t even stay on the post! I tried to be as nice as possible, but it was pretty upsetting that they made all these changes without my knowledge. I ended up leaving them there until the Ops Mgr calls me to discuss possible solutions. Fingers crossed I get a free upgrade.

Blah. That was kind of annoying to type. I just want my friggin earrings back!

My workout for yesterday was supposed to be ‘cardio of choice.’ I chose to do a mish-mash of things at home. I did alternating kickboxing and strength moves and finished up with 100 burpees. 100 BURPEES!! Rather than breaking it up into sets of 10, I wanted to bust out as many efficient burpees as I could. I would do as many as I could with the best proper form, record the number, and take a quick break before attempting more. After 15 attempts, I hit the 100 mark. I’m totally going to do this throughout February. I’m starting to love burpees again.

And again, Layla joined me.

Once my workout was complete, I quickly cleaned up and Tyler and I headed to the Flames game! Tyler got tickets from his boss, so it was a sweet (and free) way to have a nice little date night. And of course we enjoyed beer and hot dogs.

The game was actually close, but the Flames lost in a shootout.

Which brings us to today.

PANCAKES.

Chocolate chip pancakes.

With Coffee.

HEAVEN.

Chocolate Chip pancakes

1 cup flour
1 cut oats
2 c + 2 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking powder

1. Mix ingredients. Pour batter on griddle. Top with chocolate chips. Flip. Eat.

I was planning on topping with a tiny bit of pure maple syrup, but they were so moist and gooey that it really didn’t need it. Go make these now.

Now I must go put cheese on chips and chips in dips. And watch football.

Question: What’s your favorite pancake flavor?!

Flying

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Just waiting for my plane.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Question: are you an aisle person or a window person (I’m not even going to ask about the middle seat because no one is a middle seat person.)

Armed and Ready

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I have a mish mash of things to talk about. I could make this one long cohesive post, but I’m not the best at transitional writing. Or any writing for that matter.

Last night I made a BOMB ASS chicken salad. I didn’t really follow a recipe, nor did I really track the amounts of the ingredients I used, but I’m still gonna share the goods.

I used shredded chicken (boneless chicken breasts and chicken broth in the crockpot on high for four hours and shredded with 2 forks), red grapes, cashews, celery, mayo, plain Greek yogurt, spicy brown mustard, lemon juice, white vinegar, salt, and pepper.

It was super yummy and I couldn’t stop ‘mmmmm-ing’ with each bite. Something similar to this might make its way into my Super Bowl menu this Sunday…

This morning, my mom and I went to Target for some random items, then headed over to the nail salon for some pedicures. Not gonna lie, the last time I got a pedicure was when I was in New York in August. I’m not really one to splurge on pampering (at least not on a regular basis) so it’s nice to sit in a sweet massage chair while someone rubs my feet and legs with lotion. note: I specifically sat in the tub before heading out so that I could shave up to my knees. Gross, I know. But hairy legs at a pedicure is even more gross.
Also note, the massage chair at this particular salon is no joke. It kneads and chops and rolls and vibrates and does everything you could possibly imagine. With my back still being sore from my Saturday workout, it was pure bliss.

I had picked up a new shade of Essie nail polish from Target, so as soon as I got home, I slapped that shade on! (It’s called Armed and ready!!) My mom is convinced it’s grey, but it’s a deep green with a slight shimmer. I love it.

Today’s workout for Best Body Bootcamp focused on cardio, but I wasn’t really feeling it. Instead, I took inspiration from the deck of cards workout I did this last weekend with Ashley and Athena. I chose to do one cardio/more challenging ‘deck’ and another slightly easier strength ‘deck’. I got my grey gear on and was ready to sweat!

Round One:

Jump Squats

Start in plank position.

Squeezing your abs, ‘jump’ your feet as close to your hands as you can, with your feet landing wider than your hand position.
In a fluid motion, kick your feet back into plank position. and that’s 1!

Arnold Press

Start laying on your stomach, with your knees wide and bent and your heels touching in the air.

Squeezing your glutes, and keeping your heels together and knees wide, attempt to raise your heels in the air (think of squeezing enough to get your knees off the ground)
Return to start position. That’s 1!
(Like the sweet demo pics? I had my mom take them in the basement. Super pimp setup down there.)
Similar to before, I did the number of reps per face value, 10 reps for face cards and 11 for aces. The entire round took me about 23 minutes.

I then did a 1 mile incline on the walk before getting a jump on Round 2 which looked like this:

And another 1 mile incline walk to finish up.

That’s about all I have for now. Let me know if you need further explanation of those dumb exercise pics I posted!

Question:What’s your favorite way to eat chicken? Got any recipes you’d like to share?!!

Worth Mentioning

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well, it’s Monday. I’d say its back to the grind, but that’s not really the case…. for me anyways. It won’t be back to the grind until I’m home in Calgary where I have my routine with the pup, etc. And especially when I’m back to my usual eating habits! This isn’t technically a vacation, so I don’t think it’s ok that I have gained 5 pounds (not important in the overall scheme of life, but very important for the wedding dress fitting). Until then, it is what it is!

So…some things worth mentioning:

-check out Athena’s recap of this past weekend. She did a way better job than I did.

-have you heard of Vine?

It’s an app that is similar to Instagram, except with 6 second videos! I recently joined, so if you find yourself on Vine, make sure to follow me!!

-I had a bowl of oats this morning for the first time in almost a year! I topped it with a bit of brown sugar, cinnamon, wild bluebs, and walnuts. Accompanied with a couple cups of strong coffee, and I was super satisfied.

I think I was reluctant to get back into oats because they are usually calorie dense with all the add-ins, but I knew I needed some of the nutrients in addition to the staying power!

– Today’s strength workout was courtesy of Best Body Bootcamp. I only slightly modified it to make it look like this:

Round 1 (to be continuously repeated for 15 minutes)

Round 2 (to be continuously repeated for 15 minutes)

I made my own cardio intervals to be done on the treadmill. It looked like this:

And since its snowing cats and dogs, I’m hoping to get back on the treadmill tonight to walk while I watch Biggest Loser!

– I got an email from Citizenship and Immigration Canada today that said I have passed the initial assessment for my permanent resident application! Such good, happy news. I can’t even begin to explain to you the frustration, tears, and anticipation Tyler and I have he’d over all of this. (The tears were min, obviously. Boys don’t cry)

-because of the above mentioned bullet point, there is current a bottle of prosecco in the fridge.

-my Nike+ Fuelband broke last week. Apparently, you are not supposed to charge them through a wall outlet. It’s only supposed to be charged through a device that had a time chip. But, since Nike doesn’t tell you that, you kill it, and then wind up talking to customer service for an hour attempting to troubleshoot only to have to have a replacement sent. Run on sentence? Yes. Frustrated? Heck yes.

-mama is making a Wacky cake. Yay!

Fitness Friends Weekend!

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well hello there.

The weekend is winding down, so I thought I’d sit and push through a post via my iPad. Since the last time I checked in, my Boston gym friends Athena and Ashley drive out to stay with me for the weekend. I had so much fun. And I think they did too. I seriously just really loved having a healthy dose of girl time- filled with good food, drinks, a workout, and fitness talk (my secret favorite indulgence).

Once they arrived Friday afternoon, we headed over to Davidson’s for some food and drinks. We split nachos and I had a bison burger (I keep wanting to ‘moo’ when I say Burger, but since it’s a bison..I’m a little lost as to what noise to make. Ok wait, I just googled it- YUP I’m making this noise and this face every time I say Bison. From now on.)

Saturday, we went to the gym. Obviously! I didn’t take any pictures, so…..sorry. But Athena did and she will probably post them on her blog soon! We chose to do 2 ROUNDS of the deck of cards workout. For the first round, we designated the following:

Diamonds: push-ups
Clubs: burpees
Spades: reverse crunches
Hearts: weighted squats

I shuffled the deck, then got to flipping. For each card, we would do that number of reps for the designated suit. 10 reps for Jacks, Queens, and Kings; 11 reps for Aces. (If you do the math, that’s 94 total reps for EACH move.) 52 cards later- we were only halfway through our workout.

After a quick break, we broke into round 2. For that, we switched the exercises:

Diamonds: tricep dips
Hearts: kettle bell swings
Clubs: jump pliés
Spades: V-ups

We were sweaty. We were shaking. We were tired. we were happy ~~to be done~~. Phew!

Sidenote: just the day before- Friday, before the girls came- I had done Workout C for this phase of Best Body Bootcamp. It was an endurance strength workout which had us doing super sets of exercises repeatedly until we reached 100 reps for each- then we would move onto the next superset. It included weighted squats, lunges and push-ups (among several other exercises), so I was already feeling the burn by the time we did our two deck of card workouts!

Late lunch was at Rock Hill Bakehouse. One of my favorite lunch places to hit up when I am back home. Vegetarian black bean chili and a spinach salad.

Last night, we had my parents drive us down to Saratoga. (Responsible adults, since we knew we would be drinking!!) We stopped into Cantina. There were a few rounds if Pomegranate margaritas first…..then dinner. and another round.

And the only photo I got of the three of us:

We managed to stay there for a bit, but did go to another bar were I had two of the best beers ever.

After the girls left today, I managed to have a nice salad plate topped with eggs, some melon, AND-although being incredibly sore from yesterday’s workout- I used my ‘off’ day from workouts as an active rest day and walked 4.5 miles on the treadmill.

That’s all I have for now! I wrote this entire post with the towel still on my head, so on top of nearly my entire body being sore, my neck is as well!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Question: have you ever done the deck of cards workout? If so, what exercises did you do?

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