Blast off February 13, 2009

I looked up a bunch of workout programs today on fitnessmagazine.com and honed in on the following:

1. The Ultimate Ab Workout Plan (4 weeks long)
2. Get a Bikini Body in 4 Weeks
3. Your Flat-Abs Handbook
4. Lose Every Bulge in 3 Weeks (some Hollywood inspired thing)
5. Bikini Body Workout:  Complete Cardio and Sculpting Routine

Tonight I did #2 and the first week’s plan for #1.  I am amazed that the moves look easy but are pretty challenging, and left me sweating a bit 🙂  I felt like a total dork at first busting out the routines, but then got the hang of things.  I’m desperate to blast off some calories and flab before leaving for my vacation, so I hope this change of pace kicks my ass into better shape a little faster.  I figured that I should be down about another few pounds by now since I’m three months in to working out and eating less…just more motivation to step it up a bit for the next 5 weeks.

Have any of you done these types of workouts (i.e. 4 wk program/fitness magazine programs) and had good results??  I’d really like to hear your take on them, so please de-lurk and let me know!

The Day’s Eats and Activities

Erin asked a question today about what we do first thing in the morning…today was really bad as I hit the snooze button for like an hour before getting up!!!  And I still wanted to go back to bed after that. 

Since I got a late start I ate breakfast at home again and made coffee.  Nummy steel cut oats, raisins, Barney Butter, cinnamon, almond milk, water.

I was busy at work and didn’t end up eating until lunch until about 2.  My wrap was a little different today, and yummy!  Whole wheat tortilla, dried cranberry crusted goat cheese, peppered turkey, romaine.  My Jonagold was pithy again 😦  At least the Kashi TLC were tasty!  I ran out of turkey and romaine so my wrap was a little empty 😦

After busting my ass to get ready for my 4pm meeting I was stood up 😦  Hey, it happens here and there…People get busy and forget about meetings sometimes, esp. when they’re scheduled a quarter in advance.

I guess Chris thought I agreed to go to Mexican again tonight, as he came in to my office around 5 and started speaking of such things.  Say what?  I thought he was crazy, but whatever, I was a kind partner and agreed to go as usual. 

We went to Si Senor, where I had a massive Diet Coke, chips & salsa, and one chicken taco.  Simple, tasty, perfect portion size.  ‘Nuf said.

That’s Chris’ huge margarita in the background.

I hit up the gym around 8 and busted out the aforementioned workout, plus a 3-way cardio sesh of 15 minutes of intervals on each the stair mill, elliptical, and treadmill.  I was watching 30 Rock while on the treadmill and laughed out loud a few times…it was so funny!  I don’t watch it that often and was totally amused.

Once home afterward a little shaky-poo was calling my name…

The all-star lineup, posing next to the finished product.  I used 1 cup almond milk, 3+ TBSP shake mix, ~1/2 TBSP Maranatha, and 1/2 a nanner.  SO yummy and satisfying!!!  BTW, I love my Braun hand blender and it’s multiple attachments.  It is powerful and really easy to use, and all the attachments can go right in the dishwasher.

Guess what?!  It’s after midnight, so technically that means it is Friday!!!  Yippee!  This week has gone by pretty slowly; not bad really, just annoying.

What are you all doing for Valentine’s Day?  V-Day is a tough one…so many people get caught up in the perfect gift or the perfect dinner… I like to just focus on those I love 🙂  Chris and I are joining a group of mostly strangers at Typhoon for a multi-course meal.  I’m totally hoping it is just 8 courses of curry and not too much seafood 🙂  I need to get me some curry on a more regular basis!!

Happy Friday to you 🙂  Toodle-oo.

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!

Uh, it’s Wednesday February 4, 2009

Great title, right?  I’m seriously not able to think of anything else at this point. 

I missed posting yesterday because of a really busy schedule and later night.  The day was good and rather fast…how ’bout a quick recap for ya?

TUESDAY

Steel cut oats with almond milk, water, raisins, Barney Butter, cinnamon; and cafe, of course: 

Jonagold apple; Wheat Thins Toasted Chips; whole wheat bread with 1/2 wedge LCL, peppered turkey, romaine.

Dannon Light’n’Fit strawberry

The rest of my Jonagold

My bebidas at Si Senor: one small glass of their Original Margarita, and one massive Diet Coke :O

Followed by the special (split with by mom):  fish taco (not the crispy fried kind), barbacoa (?), rice, tortillas

I worked out and then hit up the grocery store after that.  Because I’ve had a bad run of meat going bad the last few weeks, I decided to stop by the store and buy it closer to when I know I’ll cook it.  While there I bought some Genisoy Protein Shake and lots of fruit.

The shake tasted really good!  I mixed ~1cup of almond milk with ~3tbsp of the mix, and loved the texture and taste.  It kinda tickled my throat, though…dry sensation as it went down.  Aftertaste was good, too!  Yay, a new method of getting protein 🙂  I used to use protein powders and bars back in the day, but haven’t wanted to make the committment to buy a $40 tub of protein I’m not sure about.  This cost $12. 

These strawberries were beautiful, smelled great, and sadly tasteless 😦  We’re so spoiled by our incredibly tasty Oregon berries up here that the Cali ones rarely suffice during winter.

THURSDAY

I forgot to take a pic of the oats!  Exact same as yesterday…refer to the above pic, por favor.

Lunch brought a new/old adventure!  Avocado, and pickles!  I didn’t intend to mix the two together, but then it sounded like the combo would work.  Whole wheat bread (butt!), 1 slice avocado, romaine, peppered turkey, and sliced dill pickle.   Tasty!  I also had 1/2 a Jonagold and the rest of my Wheat Thins chips.

Eventually allergies and hunger had me feeling not so hot, so I ate a ‘nana.

If you can read the note in the background by the screen, it says “put Kristin’s flowers back.”  Her nearly dead flowers were causing my allergies, but when I told her that yesterday she didn’t seem to really agree.  I moved them out of the office after she left for the day, and put them back whe n I left.

Dinner was a nice plate of whole wheat linguine with Prego Italian Sausage & Herb tomato sauce and black olives.  I made a little garlic bread (whole wheat, Smart Balance Light, garlic powder, Italian herbs) on the side for Chris and had 1/2 a piece.  Oh, and a little canned parm on top of the pasta, of course 😉  I ate a little too much…Felt really full and rather bloated heading off to my Master Recycler class.

Class was great!  We learned about food waste and commercial waste.  In the metro area 30 tons of paper are thrown away by businesses EVERY HALF HOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Holy shit.  And we’re supposedly a green community for the most part.  75% of business waste is recyclable. 

I think some of my Master Recycler volunteer hours will be helping local businesses utilize our FREE recycling program from Metro called Recycle At Work.  Businesses get personalized evaluations from top to bottom to help with everything from identifying recyclable/avoidable waste, providing boxes for recycling, providing education for employees, advice on smart purchasing, reducing resources needed, and more. 

I brought a snack in tonight:  cranberry chevre from TJ’s, Kashi TLC multigrain crackers, and sliced organic Fuji apples.  It was a success!

My snack:

Clean plate = happy guests, and happy provider 🙂  I’ll use that leftover chevre (butt!) as a tasty accompaniment on my sandwiches the next few days I think.  Naughty me!

Time to go to bed now blogger friends.  Tomorrow is going to be super busy, but I like that b/c it means it will be fast, too 🙂

Peace out 😉