Now, I never really do this because I end up changing mid-week and then getting upset with myself, but I actually wrote up a meal plan for the week! I have been checking off my eats as I go along. Dinners for the week include:
You know what I haven’t done in a while? Post about my workouts. So…let’s see what I’ve been up to in the fitness department lately..
Sunday (2/24): 40 minutes of spin followed by lower body work
Monday (2/25): Workout A from BBB followed by 30 minutes of spin
Tuesday (2/26): Intervals run for 50 minutes
Wednesday (2/27): TRX/cardio circuit workout at home
Thursday (2/28): 30 minutes spin and 10 minutes row
Friday (3/1): Upper body/core circuits and 30 minute run
Saturday (3/2): Active rest day! Walk all over the Home & Garden Expo then throughout downtown Calgary
It was the last week of Best Body Bootcamp, but for some reason, I wasn’t really into it last week. But I did make sure to incorporate a big enough mix of strength and cardio through a variety of ways (machines, body weight, intervals, steady state, etc.)
On tap for this week…
Sunday (3/3): Full Body Circuits and 30 minutes spin
Monday (3/4): Lower Body & Core Circuit and 30 minute run
Tuesday (3/5): Deck of Cards workout and 10-10-10 cardio
Wednesday (3/6): TRX circuits and 40 minutes spin
Thursday (3/7): 50 minute run
Friday (3/8): Upper Body Circuits, 10-10-10 cardio
Saturday (3/9): Active Rest or an old BBB workout
In other news, here are some foods that I’ve made/ate lately (recipes may have been altered based on either what I already had on hand or modified to make slightly healthier)
I have a clusterfudge of stuff to share with you (it took me 4 days to gather enough stuff worthy of a post)
Let’s start with food. I have been doing a lot of experimenting in the kitchen lately. Mostly they are just new recipes on basic meals. Still, it was fun to follow other recipes and see how they turned out.
First up: PIZZA. Tyler and I love pizza. We used to order it all the time, but I have chosen to make our pizzas as a means of controlling what goes into the mix. I like knowing there are no preservatives in my food, thankyouverymuch. However, most all the recipes I tried resulted in uber doughy pizza. Yuck. I don’t want bread for dinner, I want PIZZA.
After going home in January, I learned some special tips and tricks from my parents as to how to yield a decent homemade pizza (keep in mind the altitude in NY and the altitude here are drastically different).
Here’s a pic of my pizza- it had pineapple, olives, peppers, prosciutto, and a bit of leftover bacon crumbles from Tyler’s pizza.
It was really good- especially topped with tons of sriracha!
Sunday morning/afternoon, I made us brunch. We had hit up Costco on Saturday, so we were freshly stocked up on produce and meat and lots of other goodies.
Nothing like a TON of food on a Sunday afternoon to make you lazy. But that fruit was faaaaantastic. And so was the coffee..obviously.
Later that night, I decided to whip up yet another recipe that I finally snagged from my mom. In my parents town, there is this hot dog place that is out of this world fantastic. Not only are they tasty, but they are super cheap, and they have this really awesome meat sauce on them. My mom got the recipe from my uncle, and now it is finally in my hands. Bwahaha.
We used some of the yummy Costco hot dogs as our base (I think I managed to eat about half of this. Phew, was it a lot of food). The sauce took about 2 hours to simmer, and I’m pretty sure the next time I make it, I’ll have to put a lock on the lid- I went to the gym while it was simmering and I’m pretty sure Tyler would’ve eaten it straight out of the pot because the smell was so good.
If only there was smell-o-vision (or…smell-o-internet??)
Next up..cookies! I had recently gone to the health food store and picked up a bunch of ‘different’ baking ingredients so I decided on some paleo chocolate chip cookies.
I used this recipe, but substituted agave nectar for honey/maple syrup, used an egg, and used carob chips rather than chocolate chips (almost the same thing. google it)
They came out pretty great! At least, my tastebuds thought so because I inhaled way more than I’m willing to admit.
Ok. NEXT! Chili. I’m now on the Meatless Monday bandwagon- simply as a means to find more meals I can throw together without meat, both for money saving and health reasons.
I chose to use this recipe. Only changes I made were omitting one onion and adding a zucchini.
Meh. Quite flavorless. I added tons of sriracha in mine and Tyler mixed shredded cheddar in his, and there was hardly an ‘oo’ or an ‘ah’ at the table. I also had some leftover dough from pizza-making on friday, so I balled it off, topped with melted butter and garlic salt, and viola!
Sad to say that was probably the best part of the meal. No bueno, folks.
And last, but certainly not least, in honor of pancake day today, I made a hearty stack of coconut flour pancakes.
They took forever to cook on the griddle (different consistency since I was using coconut flour) but they still had tons of flavor.
I topped the stack with plain greek yogurt mixed with cinnamon, and strawberries/blueberries.
The fruit was yet again my favorite part of the meal. Yummmm.
Now that I have shown you all this food I’ve been eating, I guess I should jot down what I’ve been doing in attempts to burn it off.
Friday: Strength Workout C from BBB and 20 minutes of spin, followed by only 42 burpees.
Saturday: Day off. I originally planned on doing cardio, but my body felt so dead and heavy, that I opted to switch my cardio to Sunday. Thanks to a pep-talk facebook message from Athena. Thanks!
Sunday: 30 minute run and 90 burpees.
Monday: Strength Workout A from BBB, 125 burpees (done during Biggest Loser commercials) and a 30 minute run.
Now onto random things:
1. Took the dog to the dog park on Friday. Then we hopped in the car and went to another spot along the river for more walk/play.
This girl was plowing her face into the snow and ice so much that she made the bald spot on the inner part of her eyes bleed! Silly.
Lots of passersby were laughing or smiling at her romping and rolling.
2. Got my visa extension in the mail yesterday. Now I can plan a visit to see my best friend in Seattle!
3. I can’t wait to meet her beautiful baby. I’m also really glad to see she’s already pumping the iron I’ve sent her 😉
4. I brought back tons of bottles and cans and cartons to the bottle return the other day. Like, 2 carts worth. And I made $32.35. Too bad I probably won’t be making that much anymore since we are reusing our special bottles for homebrew.
5. Skyfall and The Man With the Iron Fists: bad movies.
6. I am obsessed with the Harlem Shake videos. Honestly, I would post them all here if I could, (and I could), but I won’t. Here are a couple to give you the idea:
I’m off to workout and find another pair of sunglasses since I managed to break my $5 ones that have lasted me about 4 years. What are you up to on this fine, Fat Tuesday??
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.
1. Yesterday’s workout was a sweaty interval workout on the bike. 35 minutes and I was done! Only two more workouts for this week and I can ‘rest’ while I sit on a couple of flights on Sunday. (I’m no stranger to lunges and squats by my gate…)
2. We sampled only one beer from our first batch of home brew and it was super good!
3. I started packing. It’s a good thing my drinking pants are also my workout pants. Saves room to bring stuff back.
4. Took Layla to the park this afternoon. Pup was a mental beast with all the fresh snow. I took about 04957203957209 pictures, but will only bore you with two.
5. I am making these tomorrow. Insert evil laugh and terrible victory dance here. I will DEFINITELY have to do Airport Gate Lunges if I have too many.
6. I posted this video on my personal facebook page yesterday and I still think it is hilarious. I had my iTunes playing pretty loud while I was doing stuff throughout the house, and the Natasha Bedingfield song Pocket Full of Sunshine came on. It immediately made me think of this video clip because the montage is EXACTLY what I was doing yesterday. SO. FUNNY. Seriously people, laugh with me on this one. I got like no feedback on facebook and I was just dying for someone to comment something like “hahaha wow Jen you are so funny to be dancing with your dog and doing chores while singing that song!” But no such luck.
moving on..
7. Wait, there is no 7. I can’t think of anything else to write. Perhaps I should workout to clear my head. OK!
(PS: follow me on Instagram @nutcaseinpoint. Samesies with Twitter. And like my Facebook page)
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