It’s Monday Already?
Posted: June 10, 2013 Filed under: breakfast, cardio, crossfit, daily, dinners, groceries, meal prep, recipes, sides, snacks, strength, workouts | Tags: breakfasts, cardio, crossfit, daily, desserts, dinners, groceries, meal prep, recipes, sides, snacks, strength, workouts Leave a comment »This weekend was a little bit backwards from how my weekends normally go – mostly because of the weather. Saturday started off cloudy and rainy, and I had to go into work for a few hours in the morning, so I decided to get all my weekly chores out of the way right off the bat.
After work, I headed straight to the gym to get in one more workout for the week. Being at the Y on a Saturday morning between 9 and 11 is really not fun to me because of how crowded it gets, but luckily by the time I was finishing up, it was clearing out.
Despite the crowds, I do love Saturday workouts because they often mean I can spend as long as I want in the gym. I can move slower, spend more time on things I want to work on, and practically get as much in as I feel like with nothing pressing to rush off to. That’s definitely how it went this weekend, and it was good to spend some extra time stretching and working on some new moves that I’ve been trying to master.
Here’s what my Saturday workout looked like:
- Warm-up + stretch
- Back squats:
- 12 @ 95#; 10 @ 105#; 8 @ 135#; 5 @ 155#
- 5×3: 185#; 155#; 135#; 105#; 95#
- 15×3 @ 35#:
- Shoulder press
- Upright rows
- Front squats: 5×5 @ 95#
- 1 Snatch + 5 Overhead squats x10 @ 55#
- Squat cleans: 5×5 @ 553
- Sumo deadlift high pulls: 5×5 @ 55#
- RDLs: 5×5 @ 55#
- Snatch drills
After my long workout, I headed home to clean my apartment and do my laundry, stopping for lunch in between. I wanted Mexican, so I cooked up chicken and peppers in a pan on the stove with chili powder and cumin, and had some chips and salsa on the side.
The rest of the day was spent shopping for new workout pants (found a pair at TJ Maxx) and running errands. And while I was out… all I was thinking about was pizza. I haven’t had pizza in quite a while, so I was thinking about stopping to pick one up, when the idea hit me: cauliflower crust pizza. I’d been wanting to try it out for a while, and with some time to kill and a craving for pizza, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. It came out absolutely wonderful too, so I’ll definitely be sharing the recipe later this week.
I woke up early on Sunday and started the day off with a big batch of extra-green spinach banana pancakes with syrup, berries, and bacon. I’m not quite sure what went wrong this time, but they all stuck to the pan and it was rather devastating. Luckily they were still delicious (even if they weren’t that pretty), but I think it might be time to buy a new, non-burnt pan…
After breakfast, I hurried off to meet up with a couple friends to hike Mt. Monadnock. It was the absolute perfect day for a hike – sunny and warm but not brutally hot.
Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea as we did because the parking lot was packed, but luckily the trail didn’t feel crowded at all. We took a trail I’d never done before, which seemed far less-traveled than the main one, and we only passed by a few other groups the entire time.
The clear skies made for picturesque views all around, and I took it all in from the top. I’m severely directionally-challenged, but on a clear day, they say you can see Boston from the summit.
How lucky am I to live in such a beautiful place?! (The correct answer would be: pretty dang lucky.) I absolutely love it here.
Once we made it back to the base, I headed home and spent a couple hours out lounging by the pool at my apartment. It wasn’t quite warm enough for me to want to take a dip, but it was nice to get a little sun.
And the last stop of the day was the kitchen for some meal prep. Since I did groceries on Friday, my fridge is absolutely filled to the brim with food… Chicken, steak, eggs, fruits, and veggies galore!
This week, I decided to take the easy route and make one batch of meatloaf filling and turn it into two different types of meals. Sometimes I make a meatloaf that lasts me practically an entire week, but I’m so sick of it after a few days that I’m shoving it in just to keep from wasting it.
To avoid that, I combined a pound of ground turkey, two plum tomatoes, one green pepper, one egg, about 1/4 cup of almond flour, and a couple tablespoons of tomato paste (ingredients: tomatoes), to make the base. Then, I put half of it into a loaf pan and topped it with bacon, and made half of it into meatballs. I baked both in the oven, cooked up some green beans to go with the meatloaf, and peppers to go with the meatballs (I’ll probably add fresh spinach when I actually eat them), and voila – two very different meals.
I don’t usually add tomato paste to my meatloaf, but I tried it out for dinner last night, and I think it was a great choice. I had it leftover from Saturday’s pizza, and it definitely gave the meatloaf an extra kick and made it nice and moist.
I also had quite a few bananas laying around, so I made a batch of banana bread muffins using three bananas, six eggs, about 1/3 cup (maybe?) of almond flour, a big tablespoon of coconut flower, a pinch of baking soda and baking powder, four teaspoons of coconut oil, and a crapload of cinnamon. (I’m so precise, I know.) Since the loaf pan was occupied with the meatloaf, I used my individual brownie pan, and they came out wonderful. It made six pretty large muffins, which would be perfect for either breakfast or dessert!
So between working and spending too much time at the gym and shopping and cooking and hiking and napping by the pool… this weekend certainly flew by. Sometimes though – like in this case – that’s the sign of a really good weekend, so you won’t hear me complaining. We’ve only got so many summer weekends to enjoy, and I think I’m off to a good start!
Questions:
What did you meal prep for this week?
What did you do this weekend?
Do you like hiking?
Memorial Day Monday
Posted: May 28, 2013 Filed under: crossfit, daily, holidays, meal prep, workouts | Tags: crossfit, daily, holidays, meal prep, workouts Leave a comment »I don’t really remember what I did last Memorial Day (oh wait, yes I do), but I’d have to say this year’s was probably way lazier than ever. I slept in, did some chores, cooked a little, sat out in the sun reading a book… it was definitely relaxing.
I did go get a workout in during the afternoon, but it certainly wasn’t my most intense fitness session ever. I guess it’s hard to get fired up after a morning of lounging around in relaxation mode!
I went over to my friend’s house, and he had big plans for a CrossFit Hero workout, but halfway through I just wasn’t feeling it. I went a little rogue and ended up doing a mish-mash of that workout and another one I had planned, switching back to the Hero WOD when I suddenly got a little burst of energy. In the end though, I still felt like I got work done, and that’s what matters.
Well, that and the fact that there are tons of servicemen and women out there much physically and mentally stronger than I am who dedicate their lives for us to just be able to do the things we want on days like yesterday. Now they’re the ones who really count!
But here’s what the workout ended up looking like:
- Warm-up: Swinging around on the rings/pull-up bar
- Back squats:
- 15 @ 45#
- 12 @ 95#
- 10 @ 135#
- {7 @ 55#, 5 @ 55#} x3
- 10 @ 135#
- Practice form (see below)
- WOD:
- 25 Assisted pull-ups (I am terrible at pull-ups and it makes me so frustrated!)
- 50 Sit-ups
- Run .5 mile
- 21 Deadlifts @ 95#
- 21 Box jumps
- 21 Assisted pull-ups
- Run .5 mile
- 30 Front rack lunges @ 65#
One of the things that I literally never work on is mobility and stretching. I always find some excuse to skip it – not enough time usually being the main one. It’s probably the worst part of a workout to skip, and I know that, but still, I find it so hard to get myself to do it.
Well, yesterday I was reminded just one of the many reasons why it’s so important. I tend to drop my chest forward when I squat down low, and since going low is the goal, that’s definitely something I need to work on. It takes a lot of back strength (which I lack, hence the reasons I also stink at pull-ups), but I’m going to make a conscious effort to work on it. I started yesterday by practicing squatting against the wall; it forces you to keep your chest up, making me realize just how much it really does involve your back. You would think squatting is all about the legs – but that is so not the case.
Once I was done with the workout, I came home and got to work on some meal prep. This is already a short week, and I’ll be spending next weekend at my mom’s house, so I did want to go overboard, but I did want to get a good chunk of it out of the way because it’s going to be really nice outside this week and I know I won’t want to be in the kitchen after work.
First, I made a huge pot of chicken + veggie soup using the rotisserie chicken I picked up the other day. I scraped all the meat off the carcass, put it in a pot, and added just enough water to cover it. Once it came to a boil, I let it simmer for about an hour to really let all the flavor soak into the broth.
While that was going, I put veggies into the food processor to get them good and chopped. I used zucchini, red, orange, and green peppers, green beans, and wax beans. I need to give my dad a shout out though because I have used the food processor he gave me at least three or four times this weekend alone, and it seriously makes me life so. much. easier. It would’ve taken me a lot longer to chop all those veggies (and I never would’ve been able to get them that small), but using the FP took all of five minutes or less. So thanks again, Dad!
After I strained all of the bones out of the broth, I dumped in the veggies and a little bit of leftover chicken and let the pot simmer for a while while I got to work on the rest of the prep.
I used the FP again to make some more cauliflower rice, and I cooked tomatoes, green peppers, and red peppers in a pan on the stove. As everything finished up cooking, I layered it all into plastic containers, with the cauliflower on the bottom, then spinach, then tomatoes, and finally peppers.
During this time, I also baked some broccoli and wax beans in the oven with olive oil and Italian seasonings, plus an entire tray full of chicken breasts.
When the chicken was done cooking, I chopped it all up and put some of it with the cauliflower and peppers, and some of it with the broccoli and beans. I used different spices for each one to keep it interesting – garlic + basil, sundried tomato + rosemary, and Italian seasonings on the cauliflower ones, and crushed red pepper + Italian seasonings on the broccoli and beans. It’s definitely going to be a good week of eats!
For dinner, I had a bowl of the soup, to which I added a little bit of salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings for flavor, and a toasted g-free Udi’s plain bagel with butter. And I don’t know if I was just super hungry or what, but that bagel is definitely in the running for the best bagel I’ve ever had. Go figure!
I put the rest of the biscotti in the freezer the other night so that I wouldn’t be tempted to finish off the entire batch in one day, but I pulled out a piece for dessert last night. The new Bachelorette premiered, and it was a holiday, after all!
I hope you all had a fabulous holiday, whether you spent it with your family, at parties with friends, or relaxing at home. And wherever you were, I hope you took at least a couple of minutes to remember what the holiday’s really about.
Have a great week! 
Keeping It Interesting
Posted: May 25, 2013 Filed under: breakfast, cardio, crossfit, daily, dinners, fitness, meal prep, nutrition, paleo, recipes, strength, workouts | Tags: breakfasts, cardio, crossfit, daily, dinners, fitness, meal prep, nutrition, paleo, recipes, strength, workouts Leave a comment »One of the best ways to keep life interesting when it comes to food is to mix things up. I often use many of the same basic ingredients and use spices to change the flavors of certain dishes, but alternating what kinds of meats, vegetables, and textures you use are also great ways to create variety.
Because I’m still trying to figure out my new schedule, this week was full of repeats for me, but it wasn’t boring at all. At the beginning of the week, I made some spinach turkey meatballs, chicken, roasted vegetables, and cauliflower rice to have on hand as a base of foods, but the rest of the stuff I just whipped up as the week went along and I figured out what I specifically wanted each day.
A few of my breakfasts this week consisted of plain Chobani with cinnamon and berries mixed in, but other variations on these ingredients could be overnight oats, smoothies, or yogurt mixed with other kinds of fruits, like pineapple, pears, apples, peaches, or plums.
Another common breakfast this week was egg scrambles, like this one made with red peppers and spinach, with pineapple on the side. Customization options for egg breakfasts are endless, including egg sandwiches, fried eggs, omelets, or egg scrambles filled with any of your favorite vegetables. My favorite things to add to egg scrambles are tomatoes, peppers, and spinach, but you might also like onions, mushrooms, ham, bacon, or cheese.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of the cauliflower rice, but I used it a couple of times this week, and I was absolutely thrilled with the addition.
Here, I sautéed zucchini, tomatoes, chicken, and spices ahead of time and stored it in the fridge. When I was ready to eat it, I threw it all back into a pan with some olive oil and the cauliflower rice and let it cook together for a few minutes. The cauliflower was almost like a couscous, and I thought it was a fantastic change. The texture added a whole new dimension to the usual chicken, tomatoes, and zucchini that I eat frequently, and I was very pleased.
Another day, I cooked up some peppers and then tossed them, a few spinach turkey meatballs, some sliced tomatoes, and spinach in a pan to heat it all up. It was good, but I’d been-there-done-that before.
So on another day, I tossed meatballs, tomatoes, and peppers in a pan with the cauliflower rice and a bit of olive oil like before, and then threw it all over a handful of spinach. Again, the rice added a really great texture change, and even though I ate meatballs with spinach, peppers, and tomatoes three times this week, this time felt totally different!
Like with my food, I really try to switch up my workouts in order to keep them interesting too. You’ve probably caught on to my basic template by now (unless you just skip over the workout parts of my posts, which is totally fine too), but here’s what it generally looks like:
- Warm-up
- Strength
- Workout
- Other random stuff – Legs/arms/skill/mobility/etc.
- Core
- Cool-down
So even though the format – or the basic ingredients – are pretty much the same each day, what keeps it fun and interesting are the little changes I’m constantly making.
Here’s what some of the variety has looked like this week:
Wednesday:
- Warm-up
- Deadlifts:
- 15 @ 85#, 12 @ 105#, 8 @ 125#, 5 @ 145#
- {5 @ 165#} x3, 5 @ 145#
- Workout (10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1): @ 55#
- Squat clean, Shoulder press, OH squats
- Run 1 mile
- 100 Crunches
- Cool-down
Thursday:
- Warm-up
- Front squats:
- Warm-up
- 5 @ 135, 3 @ 155, 1 @ 175, 2 @ 155, 5 @ 135
- {7 @ 95} x5
- Workout: Prowler pushes to opposite wall between each of the following exercises:
- 25 Push-ups; 25 Ball slams; 25 Crunches; 25 DB swings; 25 Air squats; 25 Box jumps
- 200 Jump ropes
- @ 35lbs:
- 20-15-10-5 Shoulder presses + Bent over rows
- 20-15-10-5 RDLs + Upright rows
- 50 Back squats
- 100 Swiss ball crunches; 100 Weighted side bends
- Cool down
Friday:
- Warm-up
- Strength:
- 12×4 Bent over rows + 12 Bench presses @ 55lbs
- 12×4 Back extensions @ 10lbs + 20 Obliques
- 12×4 Bent over front raises + 12 Upright rows @ 35lbs
- 12×4 Chest flies + Close-grip bench presses @ 20lbs
- Workout (15min AMRAP – 8 rounds @ 35lbs):
- 10 Thrusters
- 15 Front box jump overs
- 100 Crunches
- Cool-down: 5-10 minute walk
As you can see, it’s constantly varying! And in a life where things seem to always be the same (eat, sleep, work, gym, repeat), it’s the little things that keep it interesting.
Questions:
What little things do you do to keep life from becoming too routine?
How do you spice up your meals and workouts?
Cinco de Mayo
Posted: May 6, 2013 Filed under: daily, holidays, meal prep | Tags: daily, holidays, meal prep Leave a comment »Part two of my second awesome weekend in a row started out early again. I try to sleep in on the weekends, but it seems impossible at this point. I think I’ve slept late, and then I look at the clock and it’s 6am. I guess I’m getting old? The good news is I don’t waste half the day sleeping when I could be up doing other fun things – and I can still get to bed at my normal time on Sunday night, which is key for a tolerable Monday morning.
I got my laundry and meal prep out of the way before I even had breakfast yesterday, and I was left with a few hours of morning to enjoy. Although I can’t really explain why, mornings are definitely my favorite part of the day, and I love getting to just lounge around, watch some Good Morning America, and relax!
Meal prep involved broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and chicken, so I’m sure you can probably guess what you’ll be seeing me eat for lunch this week. My dad asked me to write about how exactly I prepare veggies (two thumbs up for him trying to eat more of them!!), so be on the lookout for that one of these days.
Breakfast consisted of two fried eggs, bacon, an almond flour “English muffin,” and fresh cantaloupe. I bought this cantaloupe on Friday – and it’s already gone! That’s when you know it’s good. I used the same basic ingredients but made the almond muffin in the oven instead of the microwave this time, and it was still pretty good.
After breakfast, I did a few errands and spent some time reading my book outside. I’m almost halfway through it at this point, and I’m loving it more with every page. This paragraph pretty much sums up my philosophy on eating:
Later in the afternoon, I headed over to my friend and her husband’s house for a special Cinco de Mayo lunch. Her cousin was visiting from Vermont, where he is spending three months for a study-abroad internship from his college in Peru, and I was so glad to be able to share the day with them.
My friend is from Peru too, and I already knew she was a good Peruvian cook, but she makes some awesome Mexican food too! There were all kinds of festive deliciousness, from tacos, to bean dip, to fajitas, to guacamole, to her homemade corn and mango salsa (which was awesome!), and I tried a little bit of everything.
Is it just me, or does food always taste better when it’s eaten outside?!
After lunch, we all hung out, chatted, and played with her puppy for a while.
And then… dessert.
I picked up this fruit and custard tart from the grocery store bakery, not really knowing what to expect, but it surpassed any expectations I could’ve had.
Then again, put anything with fruit and sugar in front of me, and I’ll probably be pretty excited…
I might have to try and figure out a recipe for this bad boy!
Did anyone else celebrate with some Mexican food/drinks? Whether you did or not, I hope you enjoyed your weekend as well!
My New Job
Posted: April 29, 2013 Filed under: daily, fitness, meal prep, nutrition, paleo, reading, thoughts, workouts | Tags: daily, fitness, meal prep, nutrition, paleo, reading, thoughts, workouts Leave a comment »When I took my current job and moved here last summer, I wasn’t really sure how it would all turn out. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it here, if I‘d want to stay with the company, if I’d want to try something different somewhere else… and the uncertainty left me feeling like a bit of a nomad, sort of living in this weird state of limbo between the end of college and the start of my “real” life.
For the past year, I have been traveling for work a lot, going back and forth between my apartment and my parents’ houses on the weekends, and for the most part living my life out of a suitcase and moving boxes. (Yesterday I unpacked boxes in my spare bedroom that I hadn’t touched since I moved in last June.)
But this was honestly the first weekend where I had no travel on the horizon, no packing or unpacking to worry about, no studying to do, and nothing to plan ahead for. I felt like my life is finally becoming more stable… and I loved it.
Okay, so why the sudden shift, you ask?
Well… That audit I went on last week was officially my last one… because in two weeks…
I will be starting a new job!
Although I’m sad to leave all of the great people I currently work with, and I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had in this group, I’m very excited about my new role. I feel like it will be a positive change for me, presenting me with new challenges and opportunities, and I’m ready for it.
It’s still with the same company, but now that I know I’ll (hopefully) be in this new role for at least a couple more years, I feel like I’m going to be able to start planting roots a little deeper here. I won’t have to travel nearly as much anymore, so my life won’t be disrupted as often, and I can focus more on building my career – and my personal life.
I really enjoy living here, and I can see myself staying, so making this change is something I’m really happy about. There are so many things I want to do to finally get started on my “real” life, some of which include:
- Buy a house
- Get a dog
- Start a garden
- Volunteer
(Not necessarily in that order…)
It was seriously so great to not have to worry about anything this weekend, and I enjoyed it to the fullest.
I did some reading:
(Clearly, I’m slightly obsessed with food these days.)
I got in a good workout with a great friend and learned more about my newest love, CrossFit:
I took a beautiful hike on a gorgeous day with some cool people:
(Who knew all this was in our backyard?! I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.)
I picked up a new-to-me healthy habit:
(It really doesn’t taste that bad when you mix it with something, like honey, and drinking a spoonful or two daily has a ton of health benefits, like preventing stomach aches, indigestion, stuffy nose, sore throat, exhaustion, cramps, and yellow teeth, to name a few.)
I spent some much-needed time in the kitchen, prepping meals:
I took advantage of the warm, sunny weather and went for a long walk around my neighborhood:
I pretended I don’t live in an apartment and pulled out my George Forman to cook up a nice, juicy, (lettuce-wrapped) burger for dinner:
I slept in, I lounged around, I cleaned, I watched my favorite TV shows, I organized, I unpacked, I looked through my new cookbooks, I took in the fresh air, I relaxed…
It. was. awesome.
Even though I didn’t mention it, I accepted my new job two days after I passed my NASM exam, so that was certainly an exciting week for me. My great-aunt said she asked my Memere to nudge God a little so that He’d be close to me, and I think it worked. I know she looks down on me every day, but she was certainly busy that weekend, because good news seemed to be all around me.
My mom sent me pictures of the flowers on my Memere’s favorite tree starting to bloom, and it’s becoming clear that Spring is definitely in the air around here. With the change in seasons, I’m feeling positive about the way my life is headed, and I can only hope that she’d be proud of me too!
