I Am A Dark Chocolate Addict
Posted: June 12, 2013 Filed under: cardio, crossfit, daily, dinners, recipes, strength, workouts | Tags: cardio, crossfit, daily, dinners, recipes, strength, workouts 2 Comments »You know what’s dangerous? Hiding chocolate from yourself.
I think I could go without any and all junk food for the rest of my life and feel perfectly fulfilled… except dark chocolate. Seriously. I think I have a problem.
The other day, I remembered that I’d bought a dark chocolate pound plus bar from Trader Joe’s and stashed it in my freezer, and it was like remembering you’d buried gold in your backyard. I’m not kidding; I was so excited.
The problem was that a couple of days ago, I ate way too much sugar before bed and didn’t sleep a wink. When you don’t have sugar or caffeine very often, a little goes a long way. Especially when you’re already sensitive to it. (My mom didn’t let me drink Mountain Dew as a kid because I’d be up for days after just one can.) Anyways, after that happened, I swore to myself I wouldn’t go eating a bunch of sugary crap before bed again. But wouldn’t you know, that promise just so happened to coincide with my dark chocolate discovery. So there went that!
Hopefully I’ll remember the feeling of caffeine and sugar pumping through my veins when I’m trying to go to sleep next time I get the urge to break off a chunk. (Or maybe I’ll just have to start eating it for breakfast instead.) We’ll see…
Luckily, the rest of my meals this week have been quite healthy and substantial. They’ve also been quite repetitive; I had almost exactly the same meals Monday and Tuesday and didn’t even realize it until I got to dinner.
Breakfast: Roasted chicken and broccoli
Lunch: Turkey meatballs with peppers, spinach, and carrots
Afternoon snack: Pear slices and homemade almond butter (recipe coming soon!)
For dinner, I did get a little wild and switch things up a bit. Monday was steak with asparagus (yummy but boring) and Tuesday was leftover bacon meatloaf and green beans.
Evening snack: Banana bread muffins toasted with butter and berries
Dessert: A little too much of the aforementioned dark chocolate…
Workouts this week have been much more variable than food has been… which is pretty much the norm. I don’t mind eating the same thing every day, but if I have to do the same thing in the gym everyday, I get bored really fast.
Monday’s workout looked like this:
- Warm-Up + Stretch
- Back squats:
- 15 @ 45#
- 12 @ 95#
- 10 @ 135 #
- 8 @ 155#
- 5 @ 175#
- 3 @ 195#
- 1 @ 205#
- 5×5 @ 155#
- 10×10 Overhead squats @ 35#
- Workout (21-15-9, run 1 lap before and after each round):
- Push presses @ 55#
- Step-ups @ 25#
- Burpee box jumps
- 5x:
- 10 Hanging knee lifts
- 5 Handstand push-ups
- Cool-down walk
Those burpee box jumps? Killer!
And Tuesday’s workout looked like this:
- Warm-up & stretch
- Push presses:
- 15 @ 35#
- 10 @ 55#
- 8 @ 85#
- 5×5 @ 105# > New PR!
- 5×5 @ 85#
- Workout (8 20-second tabata intervals (as many reps as you can) of each exercise with 10 seconds of rest in between each one):
- Wall balls
- Hollow rocks
- Push-ups
- Run one mile
- Cool down
Push press day continues to be my favorite day in the gym, and I cleaned and pressed more weight this week than I ever have before. It’s definitely not all I can do though, so I’m already looking forward to working on them again.
This week is flying by, and I’ve got quite a few fun things scheduled over the next few days, so I’m looking forward to it. I hope your week is going well also!
Questions:
What one food could you not live without?
What thing could you never do the same very single day? What don’t you mind doing the same every day?
Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Posted: June 11, 2013 Filed under: dinners, recipes | Tags: dinners, recipes 7 Comments »For a while now, I’d been hearing about cauliflower crust pizza, and I’d always really wanted to try it. It seemed like a lot of work, so I’d never quite gotten around to it, but when the craving for pizza hit on Saturday and I had a little extra time, I decided to give it a shot.
And I’m really glad I did.
Not only was it not nearly as much work as I thought it’d be, but the results were absolutely awesome. It wasn’t quite as doughy as a traditional pizza dough, but it didn’t taste like cauliflower at all. The edges were crispy, the middle was chewy and, well… it tasted like pizza! And that’s exactly what I was going for.
I used this recipe as a guide, but I modified it a bit, and I couldn’t have been happier with how it came out. I hate soggy pizza, and although I was a little nervous this might turn out that way, it didn’t at all. I even heated up the leftovers the next day in the toaster oven, and they were just as good the second time. I couldn’t imagine how it would stick together and hold up, but somehow, it managed to!
The only trouble I did have was with the crust sticking to the pan, but luckily that’s an easy fix. If I had used a nonstick pan, a pizza stone, or coasted the pan with a little cornmeal, I think it would’ve been fine. (All I own is a crappy old set of cookies sheets that everything sticks to and I’m way too cheap to go out and buy parchment paper.) My mom has a pizza stone though, so I’m definitely going to try this one again the next time I’m at her house. I can’t wait to have her try it either because I honestly don’t think you would have any idea what it was made of if I didn’t tell you.
And what better way to justify eating a big cheesy pizza than to have it be made with a vegetable crust?!
Ingredients:
- 1 medium head of cauliflower
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon almond flour
- Spices to taste – Oregano, basil, crushed red pepper, garlic
- Toppings
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450*F and place cookie sheet or pizza stone in oven to warm.
- Cut cauliflower into pieces, removing stems and leaves.
- Pulse cauliflower in food processor until it’s in tiny little pieces – the smaller, the better.
- Place the cauliflower in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 4-5 minutes.
- Dump cooked cauliflower onto a clean towel and allow to cool until it is able to be handled.
- Once cool, use the towel to ring out as much water as possible. (The more you can get out, the better, so you might have to work at it!)
- Dump the cauliflower into a mixing bowl and add all other ingredients. Mix well using a fork or your hands.
- Once “dough” is mixed, pull the hot pan/pizza stone out of the oven and coat it in a little bit of olive oil all over. (Some people use parchment paper here, but I didn’t have time for all that and mine worked out just fine without it, besides the aforementioned stickage.)
- Shape the “dough” into your desired shape on your cookie sheet/pizza stone. Pat it down so it’s about 1/2” thick in all spots.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until it starts to turn golden brown.
- Remove crust from the oven and add your desired topping. For my toppings, I used sauce, mozzarella cheese, peppers, and spices. (I wanted to also add chicken and spinach but apparently I was too excited about the crust actually working out that I forgot.) I made the sauce by mixing tomato paste (from a can, with one ingredient: tomatoes), water, and Italian seasonings.
- Put pizza back into the oven and bake for another 5-10 minutes, depending how crispy you like it.
- Once finished baking, remove from oven and let cool for several minutes.
- Slice with a pizza cutter and enjoy!
Give it a try and let me know what works for you and what doesn’t because this is one recipe that I definitely want to master!
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?
Biscuit Fanatic and A Popover Fan
Posted: June 8, 2013 Filed under: cardio, crossfit, daily, strength, workouts | Tags: cardio, crossfit, daily, strength, workouts Leave a comment »Yesterday was another seriously challenging day in the gym. The people I was going to workout with were talking about how they were not looking forward to it – and that made me nervous to even find out what it was going to be. Luckily, I got through it just fine, but it certainly wasn’t easy!
The prescribed weight for women is 65# and I only used a 35# bar this time to gauge what I could really do, but I’ll definitely move up next time. It was challenging, but I could definitely have gone heavier and pushed myself harder, so although I’m not necessarily looking forward to doing it again, I am looking forward to seeing what I can do with the prescribed weight eventually.
- Warm-up: 5-10 minute walk
- @ 55#:
- 12×4 Bent over rows
- 12×4 Bench press
- 12×4 Close-grip bench press
- 12×4 Good mornings
- @ 34#:
- 12×4 Bent over front raises
- 12x4Upright rows
- Workout – 4 Burpees on every minute and with the remaining time, complete 100 reps as fast as possible of the following:
- 20 Thrusters; 20 Front squats; 20 sumo deadlift high pulls; 20 Overhead squats; 20 Push presses
- 12x:
- Run 1 lap
- 5 Hanging knee lifts
- Cool-down
Since I pretty much ran out of groceries yesterday, it seemed like the perfect day to eat out for lunch. It was cold and rainy thanks to the effects of Hurricane Andrea (we’re a lot luckier than what other parts of the country are getting from it though), so I decided to try out a café that’s right near my work for some soup. I’d heard a lot about it, but even though I drive by it every single day, I’d never stopped in. (Maybe it was my known lack of self-control around delicious pastries and baked goods that kept me from walking through the door? Perhaps.)
I was really impressed by what they had to offer though, and before I’d even made up my mind about what to get, I’d already determined that I’d be back to try everything else. Their soups are homemade and change daily, and yesterday I picked the chicken minestrone with a side salad.
The soup was absolutely filled with stuff – just the way I like it – and it definitely was not short on flavor either. There were big chunks of fresh chicken, lots of spinach, and I enjoyed every bite of it.
But the best part may have been that every soup and salad comes with either a popover or a biscuit. And since I got soup and a salad, I got to choose two, so I went with one of each. I am a biscuit fanatic, and it was so apparent that these were homemade. Moist, buttery… I want another one right now.
I had never had a popover before, but it was just as good as the biscuit – or to my surprise, maybe even better. It was light and flaky, yet moist and buttery… I’m currently drooling all over again.
They also had a whole counter of fresh-baked pastries, brownies, bars, and cookies, but I resisted… for now. It’s hard to believe that I didn’t leave with one of each, I know, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ll be back.
After work I headed straight to the grocery store to replenish my fridge, and I picked up another rotisserie chicken for dinner. It was pretty much the same as the meal from two weeks ago, except I swapped the yellow beans for green ones and the cherries for grapes (which were much cheaper). I definitely don’t feel like cooking after a long week of work and a grocery run, so it’s the perfect quick, easy Friday night meal!
I’m starting off my Saturday morning with a few hours of work, and then it’s off to the gym… Have a great weekend, everyone!
Music And Meals And A Lot Of Randomness
Posted: June 7, 2013 Filed under: cardio, crossfit, daily, strength, workouts | Tags: cardio, crossfit, daily, strength, workouts 1 Comment »At my new job, I sit in a cubical in the way back of a really quiet room. Not only can you hear everything that anyone who sits in the room ever says, but the silence even almost sounds like something. I never used to listen to music at my old job, but in this new quiet environment, I find myself listening to it more and more as I sit at my desk and plug away. (That makes it sound like my job is really boring – but it’s not at all, thankfully.)
One of my favorite ways to listen to music has always been Pandora, but recently I’ve been using the iHeartRadio app on my phone even more. I think the big advantage (for me) is that it has a sleep timer, so I can put it on before bed and set it to go off after a specified amount of time, instead of letting it play all night long.
It also tracks the stations that you listen to, and by far the one that I listen to the most is the Matchbox Twenty station. The music is perfect for work – upbeat yet calm, if that makes any sense – and honestly it helps to put a little bit of bounce in my step. (Luckily no one has caught me singing along and dancing in my chair yet…) It doesn’t just play Matchbox Twenty songs either, but a whole bunch of songs that are similar to theirs as well. And, just like Pandora, you can give songs a thumbs up or down and they will play more or less of songs like it. I’m not sure who invented these music genre apps, but they rock.
One of the other songs I’m absolutely obsessed with lately (I say lately but it’s really been for the past couple of months), is this one:
Anyone else?! I heard the Macklemore station was awesome too, so last night after work when I went back to the gym, I listened to it. I stretched, rowed 2000M, and did 50 overhead squats and 50 thrusters at 45#, and it was the perfect music to go with it.
As far as the gym goes, I’ve been working out with a few other people all week, and it’s been a lot of fun. I usually go in with a plan, but it’s been interesting to throw that one out the window and go with whatever they’re doing instead. When I program for myself, it’s a lot easier to subconsciously plan things that I like to do and not plan things that I don’t like to do, but that doesn’t help me get better. By just following along and doing whatever they’re doing, it challenges me and forces me to do things that I’m not always good at.
Take Wednesday’s workout, for example, which included pull-ups:
- Warm-up: 5-10 minute walk/run
- Deadlifts:
- 10×3 @ 95#
- 8×3 @ 105#
- 5×5 @ 135#
- 3×3 @ 155#
- Workout (Air squats while waiting for others to finish each round):
- Prowler push to end of track
- 10 Band pull-ups
- Prowler push to end of track
- 10 Push presses @ 55#
- 100 crunches
- Cool-down: 5-10 minute walk
Or Thursday’s, which had a whole lot of burpees going on:
- Warm-up: 5-10 minute walk/run
- Front squats:
- 15 @ 60#
- 10×3 @ 80#
- 5×3 @ 100#
- Workout 1:
- 100 Air squats
- Sprint to end of track
- 80 Mountain climbers
- Sprint to end of track
- 60 Push-ups (did half on my knees)
- Sprint to end of track
- 40 Box jumps
- Sprint to end of track
- 20 Burpees
- Cable circuit (4x @ 40#):
- 12 Triceps pushdowns
- 12 High rows
- 12 Biceps curls
- 12 Upright rows
- Workout 2 (6x):
- Bear crawl to end of track
- 10 Hanging knee lifts
- Run rest of lap
- 10×5 Plié squats @ 95#
- 25 Pull ups assisted @ 40#
- 100 crunches
Neither burpees or pull-ups are my favorite thing to do, but when you’re not alone, you have no choice but to push yourself to keep up!
In other news, this is the third plate I’ve broken in the last two weeks.
That has got to mean some sort of bad luck is headed my way. You know, like when you break a mirror? Maybe it will just mean that my wallets going to take a hit. The worst part is that it’s all of my favorite dishes that keep breaking! At least I snagged a few plates and dishes from the yard sale last weekend to replenish my cabinet.
And speaking of replenishment: I am dangerously low on groceries this week. Every couple of weeks or so, I try to buy less groceries and use up things I have stashed away in the freezer, and since I wasn’t home on Sunday to do a full grocery haul, this happened to be one of those weeks. I made it to Friday with enough, but it has been close!
This meal was zucchini, tomatoes, and chicken cooked on the stovetop with Italian seasonings and olive oil… finished up both the zucchini and the tomatoes on this one!
And this meal was quite random, as I used up just about the rest of what fresh ingredients I had on hand. I wanted something sweet, so that’s were the chicken + honey came in, but I also wanted breakfast for dinner, so that’s where the pan fried potatoes + ketchup came in. That’s actually a yam, which I diced up and cooked in a pan on the stove with olive oil, salt, and pepper, but it did the trick. It doesn’t get quite as crunchy as a white potato, but there are more nutrients and the flavor was pretty much the same. And to round out the meal with something colorful, I threw in a few sautéed green and red peppers.
Still delicious, but it’s a good thing I’m headed to the grocery store tonight!
Questions:
What are your favorite music apps/devices?
What are you favorite Pandora/iHeartRadio stations? Oddly enough, another one of my favorites is the Avril Lavigne station. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.
What is the most random meal you’ve eaten this week?
Give Yourself Some Credit
Posted: June 6, 2013 Filed under: cardio, crossfit, daily, fitness, strength, workouts | Tags: cardio, crossfit, daily, fitness, strength, workouts Leave a comment »It’s weird because once upon a time, back squat day was my favorite day of the week. Then for the past couple of weeks, front squat day has been my favorite. But this week, I think shoulder press day is the best of all.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s that much of a coincidence that whatever I’m currently doing best in is my favorite day of the week. When I hit a stride in something, I want to do more of it. When I’m struggling with something (like I currently am with back squats), I want to do less of it.
And I think that translates into life pretty well too.
The things that we don’t like doing as much get pushed off, while the things we like to do get done right away. Take doing the dishes – my least favorite chore. I’m getting better, but I used to let them sit there for days while keeping everything else in order just because I hated doing them so much. I’ve learned though that putting off the things you don’t like can negatively affect everything else as well. If I let my dirty dishes sit in the sink for a week and start to smell all funky, then not only is cleaning the rest of my kitchen kind of pointless, but it also hurts my effort to keep my things nice when my dishes become so gross that it’s easier just to throw them out. Know what I mean?
Well in the gym, it’s the same thing. Some people love to run but hate to lift (or the other way around). Some people love doing upper body exercises but hate squatting. In the end though, if you’re not doing a little bit of everything, you’re not going to be your best. I try to keep that in mind when I’m not doing so well at something, and it pushes me to work harder. I know I’m terrible at pull-ups, and for a while that made me avoid them like the plague, but I’ve done them everyday for the past week, and I can already feel myself improving!
Monday was a rough day for me I the squat department, but I worked on them that night, and I’ll keep at it. My confidence definitely took a hit when I couldn’t seem to get things right Monday morning, but it’s nothing that a little more practice and hard work can’t fix.
Here’s what Monday’s workout looked like:
- Warm-up: 5-10 minute walk/run
- Back squats:
- 15 @ 45#
- 10×2 @ 95#
- 5×5 @ 145#
- Workout 1 (21-15-9):
- Thrusters @ 45#
- Burpees
- Workout 2 (4x):
- Run 3 laps
- 5-7-9-11 one arm dumbbell snatch (right)
- 5-7-9-11 one arm dumbbell snatch (left)
- 2x @ 45#:
- 10 Strict presses
- 15 Push presses
- Plié squats: 5×5 @ 95#
- 25 pull-ups assisted @ 40#
- Cool down: 5-10 minute walk
On Tuesday, things went a lot better with push presses, and it definitely boosted my confidence back up. I also joined a group of people for a workout, and it was a lot of fun to have the support of others who are also feeling like they might die working hard. Before we started, I didn’t think I’d even get to the dumbbell swings under the five minute cap in each round, and I ended up getting through a total of 133! It’s all about determination and effort, my friends.
Here’s what Tuesday’s workout looked like:
- Warm-up: 10 minute walk on treadmill
- Push presses:
- 15 @ 35#
- 10 @ 55#
- 8×5 @ 75#
- 5×5 @ 85#
- Workout (3x, 5 min cap per round):
- Run 3 laps
- 30 wall balls
- As many DB swings as possible @ 25# (I got 45, 52, and 36 reps)
- @ 35#
- 25 Reverse curls to overhead
- 25 RDLs
- 100 Swiss ball sit-ups
- 100 Weighted side bends
- Cool-down: 10 minute walk
Tuesday night, I took a walk to the Y after work, and it was such a beautiful night out. My neighborhood is totally walker-friendly, with big, wide sidewalks and lots of friendly people, and I love that about it. I also love that I live so close to the Y that I can walk there because, really, who wants to be in a car after working inside all day?
I’ve been pretty sore this week, so it felt great to stretch my legs out a bit during the walk, and while I was there I stretched (I know, it’s a miracle – I never stretch), and rowed 2000M.
And honestly, when I really think about it, despite the challenges, I think every day that I’m in the gym is my favorite day. Sometimes when I first get out of bed, or when I get to the gym and feel like a 1,000lb rock, or when I struggle at something, for a minute it’s not my favorite day, but in the end, when I accomplish something I didn’t think I could do (like Tuesday’s workout), I feel proud of myself. So the next time you successfully do something you don’t normally like to do, whether it’s washing the dishes right away or PRing a new move, give yourself some credit! It’s a lot easier to not even try, and every day that you do try, you’re getting better.
Questions:
What’s your least favorite chore? Most favorite?
What’s your least favorite thing to do in the gym? Mine are burpees and pull-ups – both of which I’ve done (by choice) this week!
What’s something you should be giving yourself credit for this week?
Pretty Standard
Posted: June 5, 2013 Filed under: daily | Tags: daily 2 Comments »Happy Wednesday, everyone!
I honestly can’t even believe how fast the weeks fly by now, ever since I’ve been at my new job. I am busy all day long, and before I know it, another day is in the books. Luckily, weekends haven’t been cruising by at quite the same speed, so it’s pretty much a win-win.
During the work week, food has been pretty standard around here, which saves me time and makes things easier on me. If I don’t meal prep my meals beforehand, I tend to make double batches of dinners and take the second portion for lunch. Either way, it works out great!
This week, I had chicken, green beans, and tomatoes for lunch one day. I cooked up a whole bunch of chicken and vegetables in the oven and on the stove top the other night, and threw together a bunch of different combinations – this being one of them.
On Monday night, I didn’t really know what I wanted for dinner, so I just sliced up a Fuji apple, threw a pork chop on top of it with a little basil, and baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes. Alongside that I also cooked up some green beans, broccoli, and asparagus – which I’m sure you’ll see popping up sooner or later!
On Tuesday night, I made another homemade Chipotle salad, although this time I didn’t have any lettuce to put in it so there was only spinach on the bottom.
I’ve been trying to stick to my least-bad dessert policy this week, and so far it’s been working out great. I have lots of healthy dessert snacks on hand, and the abundance of fresh berries makes it all the sweeter. This little bowl was filled with Go Raw super cookies, strawberries, a few dark chocolate blueberries, and two TJ’s mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups (my favorite!), with almond milk on the side.
Speaking of fresh berries, I’ve been loving having yogurt back in my life these past couple of weeks. I still think it may give me a little bit of a stomach ache from time to time, but it makes such a nice alternative to eating eggs for breakfast every single day. For this one, I topped plain Chobani with cinnamon, strawberries, blueberries, and apricots.
Did anyone watch Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition last night? I love that show and I’m so glad it’s back. Chris Powell is awesome, and it’s so cool to see people work so hard to reach their goals. The new season of the Bachelorette has also started, and even though I say I won’t watch every single season, here I am again… watching. Bryden is one of the frontrunners in my book.
Questions:
What are you eating these days?
What TV shows (if any) are you hooked on right now?
