Let’s get physical! February 9, 2009

“I wanna get physicaaaaaaal….”  I was driving to work the other day when a road construction flagger called in and asked for an Olivia Newton John song.  The DJs were blown away by that combo, and chose “Let’s Get Physical.” 

Monday has come and gone, and it was actually good I suppose.  I was tired all morning, rather groggy after staying up until 1 a.m. watching “The L Word” and “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” on Showtime.

Breakfast was my basic oats mix:  steel cut oats, almond milk, water, raisins, Barney Butter, and cinnamon.  Smells so good!

Nummy in my tummy!

The morning was rather slow.  Who knows what happened between 9:30 and noon…Calls, emails, reading, constant internet issues….and then it was time to eat lunch.

My wrap today was SO boring:  ww tortilla, 1/2 wedge LCL, thick slice of peppered turkey, and a leaf of romaine.  I’ve gotta pep it up if I’m gonna survive the week.  On the side I had Kashi Fire Roasted Veggie crackers, and a Fuji. 

Yawn!

After more internet issues with the company website I did more emailing, case work, a little personal finance, and research.  Around 3:30 I had my trusty afternoon snack of 1 cup Dannon Light’n'Fit strawberry.

Chris and I headed home around 4:30 to get back to the LB.  After a good round of messy playing outside, Lily was settled in and I started dinner.  ‘Twas a fun and easy adventure!  I made oven fried potato wedges, steamed broccoli and carrots, re-done polenta in the oven, and reheated pork from Friday.  The potato wedges are so easy and quite tasty, and I liked the steamed carrot chunks.  The polenta could have used a bit longer in the oven, but I didn’t put it in early enough I guess. 

This filled me up pretty well, and I enjoyed having all of the variety on my plate.  Oh yeah, that’s my Diet Big K Cola in the background (Freddy’s version of Diet Coke). I’m hooked these days…

After dinner and watching part of a bad movie Chris and I headed out for 24 Hour Fitness.  We both did weights, I climbed on the stair mill, and Chris played basketball!  Yay!   His sports passion is basketball, but he hasn’t played in soooooo long, it was sad.  But, alas, no more!  He really enjoyed playing for like an hour, and felt like he didn’t do so bad for a guy who hadn’t played in like 3 years.    He was also looking forward to it since Saturday when he got his guest pass to the gym.  I think he may be a convert, folks…movin’ on over from Bally’s to 24 Hour seems to be in his near future!

Chris was done with basketball exactly when I was done on the stair mill.  I went faster tonight on intervals, and was on that bad boy for a full 45 minutes.  I figured out I need to do 45 minutes of cardio 4-5 times per week to kick start my weight loss and results.  Only doing half an hour for the last month has probably slowed down my progress more than I realized.  I really wanna look better for my vacation!  Let’s just say it involves a swimsuit. 

After working out I had a Genisoy chocolate protein shake made with 1 cup almond milk and a heaping 3 T of the shake mix.  SO good.  I really like the taste of this, as if I haven’t told you enough already.  It is also easy to blend (no blender required); I use a small, flat whisk to mix it. 

Tasty, frothy, thick goodness

I’m in a great mood now; must be the endorphins from a longer cardio sesh and the fact that my honey got to play b-ball   Whatever it is, I’m takin’ it to bed with me now and hope it is still there when I wake up.  Tomorrow will be a long day…and with some possibly challenging clients book-ending my day.

Hope you all had a great Monday as well!  Ciao, bellas!

Maranatha vs. Barney Butter February 8, 2009

I’m down to the bottom of the Barney Butter jar and figured I should pick up some new almond butter soon, so I grabbed a jar of Maranatha crunchy today at Freddy’s.  Erin loves Maranatha, and I’ve only ever tried Barney Butter and store ground stuff, so I thought I’d do a taste test and review the two brands.  There were like 5 kinds of Maranatha…raw, crunchy, creamy, roasted, etc.  I went with the No Stir Crunchy, which is roasted.

Wow, what a difference between the two!  I now understand why Erin was like “BB ain’t all that” or something along those lines.  Maranatha is the polite, well-behaved, refined version of almond butter (think classical music), and Barney Butter is the all-out, in-your-face-roasted-taste, rock star opposite (think heavy-metal).  The flavor nuances of Maranatha are much more pronounced than the rather one-note Barney Butter. 

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I really like Barney Butter, especially the huge chunks of almonds in it   However, I do like the smooth, more complex flavors of Maranatha.  If you’re looking for something unlike peanut butter definitely give Maranatha a try.  Barney Butter really does taste like peanut butter and have the same texture, whereas Maranatha is quite different.  I also like that Maranatha doesn’t seem as oily at BB, nor as sticky on the tongue.  Here’s the nutrition comparison:

More power to you in your almond butter journeys!

Back to the normal blog scene for me: daily eats.  This weekend has felt like a nosh-fest   I ate too much, drank too much, and gave in to cravings more than I have for awhile.

Saturday breakfast:  shredded wheat with 1/2 a nana and almond milk.

Chris and I took his car out to wine country for an event at WillaKenzie.  It was a gorgeous day and riding with the top down was really fun.  We stopped at his favorite sandwich place, Phil’s, for lunch.  Here’s where it went downhill… this beauty is a Fajita sandwich.

This was really good and left me feeling (over) satiated and somewhat guilty.  Whole wheat bread, cheddar and provolone cheeses, grilled chicken, pepperoncinis, green bell pepp, onion, olives, lettuce, and sour cream.  Yum-o-rama!

We then went to WillaKenzie and met some of Chris’ clients for the annual Valentine’s tasting and wine release.  First we tasted a Pinot Gris (I skipped the tuna food pairing); second came a Pinot Meunier with a TJ’s French truffle. Ooh baby, they are soooooo good! 

I grabbed the double truffle

Next up was the Clonale 113, served with a civet of wild boar and chickpeas (I abstained but photographed).  I liked this wine a lot.

We were a bit warm, so we headed down to the patio for some cool air.  Such a beautiful day and a beautiful view!

Back inside for more wine… up next was Clonale 114, served with a pate of some sort on toast (I abstained).  We went on a tour at 3, and tasted the Plaisir a Trois while listening to Thibaud, the winemaker, discuss the wines, winemaking, cellaring, and more.  Each year WillaKenzie orders about 200 new barrels at a cost of $900k!  Holy shit, I had no idea barrels were that expensive.  Well worth it to impart good flavor on the wines, though.

After tasting this and a barrel sample of the Wasenwail clone, we headed back upstairs for the final tasting and food pairing:  Late Harvest Pinot Gris with a Rogue River blue cheese terrine with walnuts and apple.  Holy.  Moley.  This was an insane flavor combination that I just had to have again!!!  I don’t normally go for the funky cheeses, but this was divinely prepared and paired ecstasy on the tongue. 

We hit up a few of the stations again (truffles!), and called it a day around 4:30 or so.  Even though the sun was low and it was cold, we drove back with the top down again and the heat blasting.  It really was a great drive in beautiful country

On the way home Chris and I talked ourselves into going to Mexican for dinner at Fajitas (yeah, that took a lot of convincing–not).  I can’t believe I had like half of a Casuela   I ate one tortilla full of Carnitas de pollo, but couldn’t stop picking at the plate afterwards.

After dinner I developed a nasty headache.  While wine tasting I had only one glass of wine really, but the variety of wines and timing of drinking kinda screwed me up I think.  Allergies didn’t help either…

Eventually I got a craving for something, and ate a few bricks of Cadbury milk chocolate with almonds. 

I passed out on the couch at 10 and went to bed around 11.

Sunday

Getting up this morning was hard, mostly b/c I still had that damn headache.  What is it with me and headaches lately?  Yoga sounded like a good idea, though, so I pulled my ass outta bed and got ready.

Breakfast was shredded wheat with sliced strawberries and almond milk, and coffee with Silk vanilla creamer.  The cereal combo was a bit sour from the not-so-tasty strawberries…perhaps I should invest in some Stevia.

Yoga was good, but for being next to a really loud breather.  Same thing in Pilates yesterday.  Totally drives me crazy and I really can’t seem to zone it out.  It’s not Lamaze class, people!

After class I came home and determined I could not take the disgusting kitchen that had developed:  clean dishwasher needing unloading, sink and counter full of dirty dishes, etc.  Cleaning felt good and wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Lunch time came around and wasn’t sure what to eat…protein shake with other stuff?  Egg?  Tortilla?  I settled on one egg and one egg white scrambled, put in a tortilla with 1/2 a wedge LCL.  Nummy.  I also had half of a Jonagold, and some Kashi Fire Roasted Veggie crackers with the other half of my LCL wedge.

After my grocery shopping I did the almond butter taste test as a snack.  I tell ya, it really is amazing how varied the same product can be.  It is fun to try the various kinds, tho.

Dinner time rolled around and I got to preparing ground beef soft tacos.  I sauteed the beef with onion, chile powder, Nature’s Seasons, Tabasco, salsa, and BBQ seasoning.  For taco fillers I had a little homemade guac, reduced fat sour cream, more salsa, a little medium cheddar, romaine, and pickled jalapenos.  Whoa, mama, those jalapenos were spiiiiiiiiiicy! 

I totally shouldn’t have, but I ate a second one   Oy vey. 

After a bit Chris started saying he wishes he could have a Casuela at Fajitas, to which I responded he was crazy and that I didn’t feel like going out, esp. just for a drink.  After about an hour of his pouting in a cute way I somehow gave in and we went for bebidas.

Remember those jeans that I fit into Friday?  Well, they felt a bit tighter tonight.  Amazing how the body can change in a few days.

Of course they brought us chips, and I couldn’t resist having a few.  Noe, our waiter, also brought us La Casa!  It was sooooooooooooo tasty, and I’m sure it had like 400 cals.  Oops!  There goes the day’s health watch…

So here we are, at the end of a weekend that disappeared before I knew it, and it is already after 11.  Boo.  Can we rewind the clocks a day or two? 

Did you all have a good weekend?  I hope so!  I’m off to take Lily outside one more time and hit the hay.  Oyasuminasai (good night in Japanese) :Z

What’s up? February 7, 2009

The last two days have seemed long, yet gone by quickly.  Does that make any sense?  I feel like I’m behind on everything in every aspect of my life!  Ack!  The days are going by so quickly I’m not sure I can catch up :|

THURSDAY

Woosh, it came and went like that.  I had four meetings, some drama, and a big Diet Coke   The day started with my favorite oatmeal combo:  steel cut oats, almond milk, water, raisins, Barney Butter, and cinnamon.  Everyone keeps saying it makes the office smell good

 

After this I went into back to back meetings until around 12:30, then I ate lunch and processed some business quickly.  Lunch was a small sando (ww bread, peppered turkey, avocado, pickle, romaine), Jonagold apple, Kashi TLC multigrain crackers.

After this I headed out to my acupuncture appointment.  My allergies have been acting up a lot, and the nasal passages were a swellin’ and I had a headache brewing.  Whatever he did helped a lot, but eventually my pressure came back

A snack was in order during the afternoon, especially because I had a 5:45 meeting.  I’m diggin’ my Dannon Light’n'Fit strawberry these days.  At first I didn’t like the fake-ish taste it had, but now I don’t even notice it.  Freddy’s hasn’t been carrying the vanilla in the large container, so I’ve been going with the strawberry.

Before my meeting I got to thinking about the evening ahead, and that cooking at home afterward would probably push dinner out to 8:30 at least.  So, we opted to visit Si Senor afterward instead.  My meeting went until 7:3o I think, so I’m glad we chose to eat out.

I deviated from the norm quite a bit and went for a small chicken enchilada, and the huge Diet Coke I seem to be drinking a lot these days.

Once home I knew I had to hit the gym, totally not optional.  I went for a harder upper body workout than before, and half an hour on the stair mill.  I’ve been doing more time on the mill, and less time overall doing cardio.  Just haven’t been up for 45-60 minutes the last several weeks it seems. 

I didn’t get home until about 11:30 :O   After cleaning up a tad and prepping my oats I let Lily lick the almond butter spoon   She’s so cute…I wish I could come close to her beauty! 

FRIDAY

Chris and I slept in quite a bit this morning…didn’t fall asleep until after 1, and bed was just too comfortable this morning.  I ate my oatmeal at home; same as usual and yummy.

I thought I’d try on some of the jeans I’d outgrown, and they fit!  Yippee!  It is interesting because I’m smaller than I was last time I weighed ~145; I didn’t fit into those jeans then.  Yippee again for progress!

Work was lazy, not terribly productive, and pretty quick.  Around 1-ish we ended up eating lunch.  We ran out of the usual lunch supplies, so I had a ww heel with Barney Butter and banana, heated a little.  Also had 1/2 a Jonagold and Kashi TLC multigrain.  The nana didn’t get consumed til later…

Chris and I booked a vacation today!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!!  Work has been so mentally exhausting the last 6 months, and I think we really deserve some time off.   We are taking our laptop and planning to work some while we’re gone, so I’m going to try to blog some, too   I think I’ll wait til then to tell you where we’re off to.

I had the same afternoon snack as yesterday.

Dinner had been planned out for awhile, and I was excited to make it, but the execution wasn’t quite what I’d hope for.  I roasted a pork tenderloin (pre-seasoned–southern peppercorn), made polenta, and sauteed mushrooms in butter and chili powder for Chris (ew, fungus!).  My polenta took a helluva lot longer than expected, and for caloric reasons I opted to leave out the can of corn that I’d planned on adding.  In hindsight, I should’ve just added it.  Everything tasted good at least, and we have some yummy leftovers for the weekend.

I know this pic looks a bit sad, but don’t let that fool you.  I put a little Smart Balance Light and parmesan cheese (not canned) on my polenta. 

Nip/Tuck was on from 8 to 9, so I held off on the gym til after 9.  Do you all watch Nip/Tuck?  It is scandalous! 

The gym was good–another heavier leg workout and 30 minutes on the elliptical.   The gym was pretty tame at least, and I didn’t have any issues gettin’ my work out on. 

Once home and cleaned up I opted to make a protein shake.  ~12 oz. almond milk and water mixed, and ~5 tbsp Genisoy chocolate protein shake mix, and the other half of my nana from earlier.  I love my Braun stick blender, BTW!

(uh, I can’t insert the pic for some reason…)  It was tasty!

Time for bed, folks.  Gotta get up and hit the gym for pilates, and then get ready quickly to head out to wine country :)  Chris is going to check out 24 Hour Fitness with me tomorrow!  I hope he switches to 24 Hour soon so we can cut down on the driving for our gym ventures and he can have a bigger, more outfitted gym at his disposal.  He loves basketball but hasn’t played for years, so I hope he can hoop it up at 24 Hour and get back into his passion

Have a great Saturday!!!