The One Where I Missed Yoga

…but still went to the gym!  (That’s right people, I told you I was back!!)

Work ran late.  Damn Wednesdays.  I can never seem to get everything done at a reasonable time. I watched 7:00 come and go and realized my yoga plans weren’t going to happen.  So I headed for the gym for an 8pm workout again…

• 25 minutes on the treadmill, hurting my knees like an old lady
• 2 sets: 1 minute regular squats, 1 minute plie squats, 30 seconds pulsing squats, 30 second wall sit
• 2 sets: back extensions, assisted crunches
• 2 x 1 minute plank, again pain in the knees!

If that wasn’t enough, I went for a walk earlier today too!  Fall is here. 

After my walk, some banana bread.

Silent lunch to eat while on my weekly conference call.  Organic vanilla yogurt, thawed blueberries, oats, hulled hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, and craisins.

Afternoon snack to tide me over through yoga (the best laid plans!)…the last of the hummus and (gasp!) Mary’s Crackers.

For those who have asked, I got the crackers at Sobeys in the natural foods section.  They do have an “au natural” taste that some may consider sawdusty…but for some reason I love them!  I think it’s the seeds, and the fun crunchy texture.

By the time I got back from my workout I was FAMISHED!  I had this Campbell’s Creations soup in the cupboard and thought “yaaaieee dinner is ready!”.  However, once I got it open I thought “meh soup” so made a bigass salad to go with it.  :)

 

Lettuces, tomatoes, cukes, shredded marble cheddar, chickpeas & a drizzle of Ranch.  (chickpeas + cheddar = match made in heaven)

Ate a bowl of soup and a bowl of salad.

Then went back for the rest of the salad. nom nom nom. 

Now here I sit showered, moisturized, relaxed and drinking English Toffee tea.  A bit of girly TV in the form of Eastwick and then sleep will be mine!

Good Morning!

Good morning everyone!!

I just wanted to check in to toot my own horn that I did indeed get a decent night’s sleep (not perfect, but it’ll do!) and got up at a reasonable time this morning.  No crazy weird sleep in for this girl!

I sure hope that this marks the end of that nasty slump I was in. 

Deeeelish coffee this morning.

Water water water!

1/2 Cinnamon Raisin Bagel with organic PB and a side of grapes.

Off to a good start!!

Work has been super productive this morning too, and since the grey skies have turned blue today I am soon to head out for a crisp walk around the neighborhood.  Yaaaaieeeee!  (OK, maybe now I’m being a bit over excited…haha.)

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Another good thing…

Head on over to visit Angie’s blog where my girl is having a contest giving away some Amazing Grass!  Free stuff rocks.

The One Where I Got Off the Couch

Ya that’s right.  5:00 came and went and I was still trucking along on work stuff.  The weather got blustery and gross (I watched my neighbor’s BBQ blow over), so my walk plans went bye-bye.  I lost all my steam, ate cookies, put on my slippers, wandered aimlessly around my kitchen, and GAVE UP.

Then, after dinner and a bowl of jelly beans, I decided that flipping channels was NOT the way I was going to spend my night.  Something snapped.

At 8:00 I washed my face, changed my clothes, and stormed out the door.  45 minutes at the gym turned my night (my week!) around.  This is the feeling I’ve been looking for.  I don’t know where it’s been, but I’m glad it’s back!

• 20 minutes on the elliptical, cross country
• 3 sets: tricep pulldowns, bicep curls, shoulder presses
• 2 sets: crunches, reverse crunches, scissor crunches
• 2 minute plank!

If this doesn’t help me sleep tonight I’ll scream!!

Before I went I did have another comfort food dinner.  Leftover Chowdy Doody chicken corn chowder, with some cheesy Multigrain Tostitos.

These dangerous fancy jelly beans (ie: Jelly Belly knockoffs) made their way into my basket at Walmart last night.  Uh-oh.  This huge bag was only $3.  Danger Will Robinson, Danger.

 

I had one serving.  OK, then after the picture I had like two more servings.  The bright side is that I got a massive sugar rush that I put to use at the gym.  :)

That bag is now well buried in the pantry.

Oh, and before I forget…I totally stole Lynn’s FABULOUS idea for mint hot chocolate!  Soooo deeelish.  I brewed a cup of strong peppermint tea and mixed it with a packet of organic hot chocolate mix.  What a fantastic afternoon treat!!

People.  I’m back.  I promise.

Chicken-Salad Salad

Hmmm…well let’s see.  I’ll start with the fact that I was actually asleep by 2am.  It’s a strange world where that’s an exciting tidbit of life!  Tonight I’m aiming for midnight, but I dunno…wish me luck.

Today I plan to get some kind of simple workout…maybe an hour of walking or elliptical or something.  Must get back into it pronto!  A week off is not OK in my world.  :(

Started the morning off on the right foot with coffee and oats!  Nothing like that first pot of coffee from a new bag of freshly ground beans.  Deeeelish.

Banana Berry Oats:  1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup oats, 1 heaping tbsp flax, 1/2 ripe banana, 1 cup fresh frozen blueberries & raspberries

I like my oats simple, without a lot of mixins or toppers.  Even this is a pretty long list of ingredients for me.  :)

Love the blueberries in there!

For lunch I created a third meal from the last of the roasted chicken.  Chicken salad.  But instead of on bread, I put it on greens…giving me well, Chicken-Salad Salad!

With the chicken: celery, green onion, raisins, light mayo, dill, s&p

In the big bowl:  salad greens, cucumber, carrots, grapes, honey, lemon juice, fresh cracked sea salt

All together now!  So good!!

Now I’d better get working on that workout so I can have some cookies!  :)

Instant Fun

Lookie what I happened upon while out getting a fresh bag of Starbucks Verona for my morning pot ‘o’ coffee…

VIA samples! 

They are launched tomorrow so the store was setting up tonight before closing.  I don’t know why I’m excited about instant coffee packets.  LOL.  Probably just because they are from Starbucks and I’ve been enjoying their video posts on the Starbucks Channel. 

The girl did explain why these are different than other instant coffees.  It’s actually super finely ground coffee beans, as opposed to whatever those crystals are that you usually find.  What I thought was cool is she also told me that these can be disolved in cold water!  How handy is that?

Anyway…I digress. 

A cool and gloomy day here in Halifax.  I wanted oatmeal, but I have banana bread to use up, so made a bread pudding of sorts instead.

Broken up banana bread with organic vanilla yogurt and sliced banana.

Coffee.

Coooooookie.  Damn you Whoppers.  :)

Not feeling lunch today but the pears are finally perfectly ripe.  Sliced one up…so sweet and deeeelish.  With the last of the good extra old white cheddar.

In keeping with the comfort food theme I’ve had going on I steamed up some fresh brussel sprouts (yes, I realized today that I consider brussel sprouts to be comfort food…must be because I always associate them with Christmas dinner).  

 

Served with a leftover serving of the tuna-noodle-casserole-thingy.

Completing the evening with a little reading, blogging, some new Dexter and tea & cookies.  nom nom nom.  Hopefully early to sleep tonight and a proper sleep, resulting in NOT sleeping through my alarm!  I purposely skipped the gym yet again today because I’m certain an evening workout would keep me up.  Boooo.

CIBC Run for the Cure

So a couple of months ago I signed up for the Run for the Cure.  I had just recently finished an incredibly successful Relay for Life AND supported FH during the Father’s Day Walk for Prostate Cancer and was jazzed to take on another important cause.

However…

I just don’t have it in me.  The Run is now just a few short days away and I have done NOTHING.  After all of the support from my family, friends, coworkers and blog buddies while I fundraised like a mad woman for the Relay I can not bring myself to harass these same people for donations yet again. 

It’s a sad excuse really, and I feel awful…but I am not going to participate. 

I am going to support one of my favorite Halibloggers though!!  Miss Lex is still taking part in the Run so I’m sending a little donation love her way.  (Buying away my guilt?  Maybe.  But it’s still a good donation for a great cause!)

From Lex:

“~Because who's to say it won't be you or me someday...~

I have been wanting to do this run (walk) for several years. My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and with that comes a lot of awareness for me. I will be walking for all of the women fighting this and all of the survivors out there!

Any donations are greatly appreciated! I urge all women to do regular breast self exams and be breast-aware.

xox Lex”

So if reading this makes you feel like pulling out your wallet and offering up a little something, please think about supporting our girl Lex!  (Her donation page can be found here.)

Sunday Comfort Food

Instead of the yard work I had planned for today, I decided to lounge around the house (ha, what’s new?!) and do a little comfort cooking and baking.

The house smelled fab all day!

First up, Montana Whoppers because these things have been bombarding me from every angle of blogland and I could not resist any longer.  Meghann mentioned she saw them at Megan’s, who had them as a guest post from Michelle, and then Caitlin made them too…it was just too much for me to handle! 

Holy easy!  Holy um not healthy!  Holy yum!  :)

I made a half batch…thank God…and still wound up with three dozen.  My recipe included the mini M&M’s, milk chocolate chips, and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips…I was out of white chocolate.  Next time I’ll mix up the ingredients, but I do like the crunchy candy shell on the M&M’s for something fun and different.

Super yum with my cuppa coffee. 

  

Then it was time for some chowda!  The whole point to that chicken I roasted earlier this week was to make up a batch of Chowdy Doody from the Eat Shrink & Be Merry cookbook.  Such good cool weather soup!  Now that fall is here I wanted to get some lunches in the freezer and this HAD to be first up.

 

It takes no time at all to put together.  Once it was all hot and creamy, I served up a bowl and curled up to enjoy.  So yum with a handful of multigrain Tostitos for scooping.  :)  Deeeeeelish.

 

And four more “healthy” (in size and nutrition!) servings to call upon over the coming weeks.

And now…I’m off to Farm Girl’s for the premiere of The Amazing Race!!  Don’t forget!!

Recipe: Basic Banana Bread

I find that I often get so caught up in making only “healthy” baked goods, that sometimes it’s nice to just follow a regular recipe the way it’s supposed to be.  No substitutions.  Just traditional recipes.

This Banana Bread recipe was given to me by a former co-worker’s wife and it turns out perfect and moist every time.

Basic Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 tbsp butter (room temp)
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3-4 very ripe bananas (mashed)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup walnut or pecan pieces (lightly toasted) (optional)
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• In a large bowl: cream butter.  Add sugar, beat together.  Add egg, beat. Add vanilla, beat.
• In another bowl: Mix flour, soda, salt & baking powder.  Stir to combine. 
• Add mashed bananas to wet mixture.  Fold together.  Add nuts and/or chocolate chips if desired.  Add flour mixture gradually, stirring to combine.
• Pour batter into sprayed loaf pan.  (Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top, if using.)
• Bake for 50-60 minutes.  Check for doneness at 40-45 minutes as some ovens cook faster than others. 
• Let cool before removing from pan.  Slice and enjoy!