Cracking is like crack

Oh boy, did I need that chiropractor appointment today.  My neck had this crazy kink in it, and now it’s gone!  I forgot to mention yesterday that while I was at the doctor I asked her to follow up on her referral for me to see a sports medicine doctor because it’s been almost six months and no one has called me!  She was super annoyed to hear that, so hopefully she raises some hell and I can get in soon.  My shoulder pain has never gone away, but it’s at least tolerable now…some days are worse than others. Lately though, I’ve noticed the big knot under my shoulder blade is coming back, and that is a bad sign.  That knot is what eventually led to tear-inducing pain last year…I’d rather not go back there!

On a happy note, I think I finally figured out how to get my massage therapy reimbursed by my insurance company AND I recently discovered that the Massage Addict near my gym is certified and accepted by most insurance cos.  They are half the price of my usual therapist, so that means I can afford to double up and maybe it will actually do some good!

After my workout today (nice, slow 17 minute run on the treadmill…plus warmup and cooldown AND some upper body strength exercises) I came home and made the extra smoothie #7 I owed you for Smoothie Week.

I was basically cleaning up the produce on hand, so in the blender today was: 1/2 banana, 4 strawberries, about 1/4 cup pineapple with the juice, 1/3 cup coconut milk, 1/2 cup light vanilla soy milk, and 2 heaping teaspoons of flax meal.

Yum Yum!  (note: shameless photo of new purse…haha)

Served this with the last croissant (heated in the oven to take the stale edge off) and some organic crunchy PB.  Flakey mess!

I tried to get through on just the one coffee, but alas around 2:00 I decided to drink the other cup.  I’d left it in the pot for FH, but when he didn’t drink it, it taunted me.  Enjoyed it with a packet of vanilla Sezme Snaps (which I just Googled and found out to be 160 freaking calories).  It’s the small things that can getcha!!

Had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have opted for organic gummy bears as my next snack.  These are tasty little buggers, but for the price I probably won’t buy them again.  I enjoy dried fruit just as much for about 1/3 price.  At least I chugged a big bottle of water at the same time.

For dinner, I just did a quickie.  Pan seared some antibiotic-free pork chops (how cool is it that Presidents Choice has introduced this line?), wilted some spinach, steamed some asparagus, and nuked some Lundberg risotto I had in the freezer. 

Not too shabby for a quick and dirty dinner.  :)

Tonight FH and I are off to see Terminator Salvation.  We’ve heard it’s crap, but we love seeing big special effects movies on the theatre screen.  It’s just not as cool at home.  Let’s see if I can get through the treat selections unscathed again…I’m sort of thinking TCBY might be nice…

Smoothie Week – Day Seven

....you may have noticed Day Six was missing...yesterday just wasn't a smoothie kind of day, so I owe ya one!  (Day Five was rolled into this post.)

After two days of random eating, all night walking, snacking and a rich and decadent date-night I was looking forward to getting back on track today.  Hence, an actual Green Monster!

Back to basics today.  In the blender:

- 1/2 frozen banana

- 4 fresh strawberries

- 1 tbsp almond butter

- 1 tbsp flax meal

- 3 cups organic baby spinach

- 3/4 cup vanilla Almond Breeze

Deeeeelish. Smooth, sweet, and creamy.

  

The almond butter was a new ingredient this morning.  Not sure that it was worth the calories since I couldn't taste it and I don't think if affected the consistency or holding power in any way.  Think I'll skip it in the future.

Served this alongside another delicious croissant and a bunch of grapes.  Yum Yum!

Relay Day Fuel

9:30 am:

Coffee on the run

10:30 am:

Crumbled banana coconut oatmeal muffin and sliced strawberries mixed with an individual Liberte vanilla yogurt.  Holy yum!

1:00 pm:

Easy salad of tomatoes, cukes, a smidge of red onion, fresh basil, and a sprinkle of balsamic.

Paired up with some hummus, Mary’s crackers, Grissol crackers, and the leftover tuna from last night’s sammich.

 

4:00 pm:

Smoothie (Day Five!) for the road:  strawberries, frozen 1/2 banana, light vanilla soy milk, raw oats, flax meal, whey protein isolate (plain, found at Bulk Barn), and a splash of OJ to thin/sweeten…if this doesn’t hold me over, I don’t know what would!  :)

 

All Night Fighting team fuel:

Sammiches…ham & cheese, or turkey & lettuce

Oatmeal Trail Mix Bars

Snacks a plenty…yogurt pretzels, deluxe salty nuts (dirty!), chocolate peanuts, ORGANIC (read: expensive) gummy bears

Wish us luck!!!  And keep those donations coming. 

Pledge center is available until June-26th!!

Sooooooooo close!!

I am only $155 away from my new $1000 goal for the Relay for Life.  I’m scurrying around sending emails and re-writing my Facebook status constantly trying to rope in a couple more friends or family members (or blog readers!!!) to join the cause and pledge a donation.  Tomorrow is the big day! 

I am just sooooo incredibly pleased with the support thus far.  So much more than I expected with only two weeks of fundraising.  Please help me hit that $1000 goal!

 

After yesterday’s less than motivational treadmill experience I decided to elliptical my way to a healthy me this morning.  Besides I don’t like to treadmill run two days in a row anyway…hard on my joints.  But I had to drive FH in extra early (6:55 ewwwwww) so I had to hit the gym (only one time ever have I driven him in and not gone to the gym, and that’s because I was really sick…if I’m up and out then I should be constructive with my time!).

Elliptical: 20 minutes intervals (ramp 6 vs ramp 20, medium tension), 5 minute reverse cooldown

For strength training I tried to cover a bit of each base.  I got my full upper body session that I missed out on yesterday, plus a little bum action and some core work.  With the 12 hours of walking I’ll be doing tomorrow night I didn’t want anything too strenuous on the lower body.

3 sets of 12 (higher weight, lower reps):

- tricep pulldowns (17.5lbs)

- bicep curls (30lbs)

- military presses (30lbs)

- side to side bends on upsidedown bosu (to stretch sides and work core)

- squats on upsidedown bosu

- hamstring curls on the ball

- regular crunches

   

As for the Day Four Chocolate Monkey Smoothie…it’s holding power was not good.  Two issues at hand… 1) The reason I am not usually a smoothie drinker is because even if it’s protein packed or calorie-laden I still find myself wanting FOOD.  I prefer to EAT rather than DRINK my meals.  2) Even though each component had protein (oats, banana, almond milk) it just wasn’t enough to actually fill my stomach.

Immediately after drinking my smoothie I was rummaging around the kitchen looking for something else.  I settled on a handful of organic animal crackers hoping the crunch would work.

It worked for about an hour and then I was actually getting hungry for real.  I held it off for a while with coffee, but in the end I opted to eat my lunch earlier than planned.  Lesson learned on this particular smoothie!

Lunch was leftovers from the uninspirational Lemon Chicken Spaghettini.  I added more lemon, more dijon, more salt & pepper, some organic baby spinach, and some matchstick carrots. Topped with extra fresh basil. This helped for sure!  Veggie love, baby.

Served with a side of Mary’s crackers (I really need to remember to review these!) with herby light cream cheese and some carrot sticks.

AND I’M STILL HUNGRY!  Holy Hannah people.  (That reminds me…I did get a doctor’s appointment but of course it’s next week!)

Smoothie Week – Day Four

This time brown does mean chocolatey!  Let’s call this one the Chocolate Monkey Monster!

In the blender today:

3 ice cubes (which did not crush up!)

1 small frozen banana

1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze

big glug of light coconut milk

1 heaping tablespoon chocolate PB2

1/4 cup raw whole oats (thanks for the reminder on that one Eurydice!)

I really had to blend this one well.  I let it run while I wandered off to wash my hands and tidy the living room (and even then the big ice cubes didn’t totally crush up).

It’s pretty yummy though.  Kind of tastes like a malt.  I topped it with a drizzle of FH’s chocolate syrup just for fun!  Yum!

What did you blend up today?

Smoothie Week – Day Three

A few of you lovely readers left me a couple of ideas, but I still need MORE!  I’ll be sure to try out something to do with coffee because that seems to be a HOT idea out there.  I need to get my hands on some whey protein first though, so the smoothie can still serve as a meal.  (I’m just not in love with having to buy one of those hugeass tubs of it…can you buy whey protein…or some other kind of protein…in a smaller container?)

Today I decided to go with a recipe from the book that inspired the whole concept of Smoothie Week.  This is my Rebar cookbook.  Rebar is a fantastic vegetarian restaurant back home in Victoria.  I only ate there a couple of times, but it is extremely well known and I’ve never heard a bad word about it.  They also have a bakery, Cascadia, that makes fabulous baked goods.

I have been thinking about something tropical because I had a container of fresh frozen pineapple in the freezer that I wanted to use up.  Hence…Double Happiness! 

In the blender:

(I don’t have plain soy milk, so I used unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze.)

Today’s smoothie boasts a much more palatable color…pink!  It is tasty and refreshing…and may potentially bring me good luck!  I think I would use more coconut milk next time because I can barely tell it’s in there…but I LOVE coconut flavored things, so if you don’t then this would be just right.  :)

Over all this one has been my favorite so far, although I do feel like the Green Monster from Monday definitely FELT more healthy.  Not sure that it actually was, but the idea of drinking 2 cups of spinach sure makes things FEEL that way!

Smoothie Week – Day Two

A Brown Monster?  Sounds good, no? :)

Well folks, I’m hear to tell you that green + blue + orange = brown.

Admittedly I was worried that I’d ruined this particular smoothie.  When I saw the color I was not impressed.

However…lay your fears to rest!  It tasted fruity, fresh and tangy.  All good!!

In the blender today: 1/2 cup fresh frozen blueberries (slightly thawed), 1/2 very ripe banana, 1/2 cup Liberte vanilla yogurt, 2 cups organic baby spinach, 1 heaping tablespoon flax meal, about 3/4 cup orange juice (could have used only 1/2 cup).

The results were ugly, but refreshing and yummy!  Served up OSG style again, in a stylin’ martini glass.

     Of course once I finished up my salad in a glass, I went straight for the coffeeeeeeee.  Two cups today people…not interested in another afternoon crash like yesterday!  Along with one of my banana coconut oatmeal muffins and my new best friends…allergy pills. Sneezing like a mad woman over here!

Smoothie Week!

A month or so ago I got a new cookbook that has what I thought was a chapter on smoothies.  This gave me the great idea to have a Smoothie Week!  Although it turns out most of the recipes are for juices (and I don’t have a juicer) I decided to go ahead with Smoothie Week anyway.  :)

Each day I will make a new smoothie for breakfast, or maybe an afternoon snack…depending on what’s going on.

If you have a “must try” smoothie recipe, please leave it for me in the comments.  I am willing to break out of the box and try more than just strawberries and bananas this week.

To launch the week, I decided that I should offer homage to Oh She Glows and join the Green Monster bandwagon.  *shout out to Angela*

In the blender: 1 small very ripe banana, 2 heaping teaspoons flax meal, 2 heaping cups organic baby spinach, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze

And just as everyone says, you can barely notice the spinach.  All I could taste was banana and a slight hint of vanilla from the almond milk.  Awesome!

Served up Angela style!

What should I blend up tomorrow?