Tag Archives: walk

Gangnam Style

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I made another new-to-me dinner last night, and it was pretty good.

Couscous with veggies and bacon. Pretty self explanatory. But the secret was in the dressing! After you cook the couscous as directed, sautee any veggies you have in the fridge (I used red pep, zucchini, and an onion from the garden), and sizzle up about 5 pieces of bacon, toss them all together in a bowl.

Then- the best part- coat the mixture with dressing made up of:

  • Juice of one lime
  • 3 T olive oil
  • 1 T honey
  • 1 t paprika
  • Dash salt
  • Dash pepper

It was a really nice dish. Only complaint from Tyler was that it was too sweet. He probably would have enjoyed it more if there was a higher ratio of bacon. I would suggest tasting the dressing before coating the dish to make sure it’s to your liking.

******

Yesterday’s workout came in three parts.

Part 1: Strength Circuit from Best Body Bootcamp. For the workout I chose, she had us doing 5 sets of each exercise before moving to the next exercise. Each set was supposed to use higher weights, but since I didn’t have much choice from working out at home, I made sure to do variations for each set to incorporate muscle confusion. For example: with bench presses- first set was with feet flat on the ground; second set had my legs in ‘table top’; third set my legs were fully extended; fourth set I did on the stability ball; fifth (and technically sixth set) I did single arm presses.

I’m not sore today, but I definitely felt the challenge as I progressed.

Part 2: 45 minute walk with Layla. I wore a jacket, but hot dang I was a sweaty mess by the time we got home. I chose a route that was very hilly so I could work those glutes just that much more 🙂

Part 3: Cardio. I buzzed on over to the gym for a 25 minute interval run on the treadmill and 10 min HIIT on the elliptical. Ummm, it’s been over 3 months since I have been on the elliptical. How did that happen?

Today’s workout will be at the Eau Claire YMCA downtown. I am co-teaching HEAT (indoor bootcamp) then going over some kickboxing stuff with the fitness director to see if I am eligible to instruct an upcoming class. Then probably some sweating on the treadmill.

I leave you with my current favorite jam/dance/I will be breaking this out at the retreat this weekend:

If you scroll to 1:27, that might be what I look like while instructing my class this afternoon. #justsaying. Gangnam Style.

Let’s play a game called Catch Up

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I have been doing things. Not so many things. I managed to still have large chunks of boredom-even on a holiday weekend. It’s LABOR Day, you Canadians. Not LABOUR Day. Ugh

I also neglected to take pictures of every little thing I did because I like to see things in real life- not always through the lens.

Mac N Cheese, people. I had a craving on Friday that would not go away. It’s a ‘kid’ meal, so I notched it up to the adult level by accompanying the meal with a vodka soda. Weird combo, but it worked.

Then Saturday came. A beautiful day on a holiday weekend. And I worked on my final for grad school. Gross. I actually cried because I have been just so frustrated with my super absent professor, that I just wanted to wash my hands of this nonsense. But it’s over now, and I have a 2 1/2 week hiatus before I begin my LAST TERM of grad school. Jazz hands!

Sunday. Gluten Free pancakes from Kinnikinnick and Kicking Horse coffee. Lots of both.

And a walk at the park with Layla. The best part- it has been COMPLETELY fenced since we last visited. Layla was allowed off leash!

 

A perimeter check and perimeter poop, and she was ready to hit the river.

 

 

Here is where I will declare that I make the yummiest chocolate chip cookies of all times. ALL TIMES. Want my recipe? Send $20 and a self-addressed envelope to my house and I’ll consider.

 

Yesterday we had a picnic. In the house. I went to the store and grabbed lots of picnic-y foods and we sat on the ground with the dog and ate.

 

And ate.

 

And ate.

 

And ate.

So that brings us to today. I was pretty excited for today because I was going to buy a pen to address the Save the Dates. (omg how sad. I was actually excited to go buy a pen. A PEN.)

 

And to make my day feel just a little bit more successful, I took the pup back to the park.

 

Graceful as always.

That is all for now. With that, I leave you with one piece of advice:

 

Recipe: Chili. Workout: Strength

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If I just want to wish you an average Thursday, do I just say “Thursday?” Instead of ‘Happy Thursday!”

Thursday.

Pardon the headache and grumpy mood.

Today started cheery and bright with the puppy. She got her morning cookie out on the patio. She’s too cute.

‘Mama, just gimme the cooooookie. I sit real nice this this”

“Look, mom. I even give my paw. I’m a good puppy”

And then, I somehow managed to take my favorite picture of the day

I absolutely love that face.

So I took her for a super long walk. She, of course, led the way.

I kid you not, I looked a wreck on that walk. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t even wearing a bra. Disgusting.

You can even see my flyaways in this shadow pic

We ended up walking longer than expected and Layla needed a shade break

Oh right. Before the walk, I did two things

  • I made chili
  • I worked out

The chili was sort of a throw-together meal, so I can’t really give you EXACT amounts, but it went like this

Ingredients

  • 1 large zucchini
  • 1 red pepper
  • 2 medium yellow onions (from our garden!)
  • 1 can of corn
  • 1 can of black beans
  • give or take 10 mini carrots

(chop all that stuff up)

  • 1.5 lbs ground beef

(brown the beef in a skillet)

  • paprika
  • cayenne pepper
  • chili powder
  • onion powder
  • salt
  • pepper
  • parsley
  • basil

(to taste)

  • 1 big ass can of tomato sauce
  • 1 small can tomato paste

Directions

Throw it all in a crock pot. Cook on high for 2 hours, low for 2 hours. EAT.

It was soooooooo good. I can’t wait for leftovers.

On to the workout…

My leg felt a bit better when I woke up this morning, but I didn’t really want to take any chances with high impact stuff in case it made it worse. So I stuck with strength (ps: last night I couldn’t go without doing any kind of workout, so I did 200 situps on the stability ball. phew)

I did 5 ‘sets’ of exercises. Each set I did 2x through. If you need me to further explain moves, let me know!

Set 1

  • weighted lunges (12 each leg)
  • weighted squats (12)
  • weighted split squat (12 each leg)

Set 2

  • Donkey kicks (16 bent knee, 16 straight leg toe taps, 16 crossover knee)
  • Double leg glute squeeze (video shows the exercise on the ball, I do these on the floor)

Set 3

Set 4

  • Concentration curls (8 full, 8 all the way down-halfway up, 8 all the way up-halfway down. each arm)
  • Tricep pulls & extension (8 each)
  • Chest press & Flys on the stability ball (8 each)

Set 5

  • Behind your back pulses (12 count)
  • Overhead press- palms in (12)
  • Lateral extension (12)

Time from this cranky pants to hit the hay.

Night!

You snooze

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Hi there, ho there.

Today started with a supah long walk with Layla.

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

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Apparently those two things pooped out my lil family.

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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.

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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!