The Times They are a Changin’

TGIF

So it’s been a while since I last posted. I’d like to say I’ve been too busy but my eats lately haven’t been very exciting and I’ve been spending some quality time with the hubby.

I’m going to give some highlights of my eats over the past few days and then go over my new exercise goals.

Tuesday evening Matt and I grabbed a pizza. I got ham and pineapple on mine. I love pineapple on my pizza. Wednesday I wasn’t feeling like much so I made some oats and a protein green smoothie.

Oats:

• 1/3 cup of rolled oats
• 3/4 cup of UVAB
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp of flaxmeal

In the bowl:

Toppings:

• 1/2 banana
• blueberries

I promise there are oats under there.

Coconut Banana Protein Green Monster

In the blender:

• 2 handfuls of organic spinach
• 1 organic banana
• 1 tbsp of coconut
• 1/2 cup of UVAB
• 1/2 coconut milk
• 1 scoop of Lean Whey
• ice

So bright, fresh and green!

While at the grocery store Matt and I picked up a box of Skinny Cow ice-cream sandwiches. Only 130 calories and they taste just like the ones you use to have when we were kids. So good.

Last night was a healthy version of tacos.

Tacos were made from extra lean ground turkey.

Tacos Seasoning:

• 2 tsp of onion salt
• 1 tsp of chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp of oregano
• 1/2 tsp of garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp of cumin

This seasoning was awesome. Not too spicy but just spicy enough.

Topped with mozza, organic spinach, red pepper and yellow peppers on a whole wheat wrap.

I had two!

Today when I got home from work I had a bowl of organic carrots.

With some roasted garlic hummus.

Dinner tonight was subway – 6 inch turkey on cheesy bread.

*******************************************************************************

So last night Matt and I sat down to have a serious discussion about our workout/exercise goals. Lately we haven’t been very good with getting to the gym and I think I figured out the problem(s).

We have two.

First: we are over planning – making crazy workout schedules (working out at least 2 times a day) that are unrealistic with our current schedules. We are setting ourselves up for failure and so when we are not able to accomplish them we feel frustrated and disappointed and just stop going to the gym all together.

Second: we keep making goals like – lets run a 5 km this time or run a 10 km at this point. This one is especially not good for me. I get very stressed over running outside. I love to run on the treadmill inside but I just haven’t figured out the outside running thing yet and whenever I start thinking about it I get stressed and think of any excuse not to go.

So here's our new plan. Go to the gym – 5-6 times a week. Three days of cardio, three days a weight training.

Simple. Affective. Realistic.

We are going to focus on just getting back to enjoying working out again. I already feel less stressed and more excited about going back to the gym.

This morning at 5:30 am was our first day back. Our goal is to do weight training Monday, Wednesday, Friday and cardio Tuesday, Thursday and one day of the weekend.

Today was a weight session. I started with a 5 min warm-up on the treadmill then hit the weigh room.

Since next week is our first full week back and I have a plan for the start of next week I just decided to do one more day of Winter Shape Up Week 3 with a few added exercises. My weight session looked like this:

Plie and Bicep Curls	16lbs	12 reps
Bend-Over Row with Kickback	16lbs	12 reps
Ballerina Plie	15lbs	12 reps
Chest Fly and Reverse Crunch	16lbs	12 reps
Lunge and Lateral Raise	10lbs	8 reps per side
Oblique Crunch with Dumbell	12lbs	12 reps
Swimming Back Extension		15 reps
Plank		30 secs
Push-ups		6 reps
Weighted Crunch	12 lbs	12 reps

 

It was a great workout and I’m glad to get back. I have a cardio session planned for tomorrow afternoon so I’ll let you all know how that goes to.

 

I now have the house to myself so I’m going to catch up on Glee (I’m a few weeks behind and can’t wait for the Lady Gaga episode) and do some blog reading and maybe watch a girlie movie. As you can tell I have big plans.

 

Night all!

 

~ Katie :)

No Music? It’s All Good!

Evening all!

This is going to be a quick blog post since 24 starts in 25 mins and it’s the last episode ever of Jack. Must. Be. Fast.

This morning I opened my jar of Prairie Natural Protein Powder.

Lean Whey. Ingredients list was great too. Low in calories and high in protein.

Breakfast was a Coconut Banana Protein Green Smoothie.

In the blender: 2 handfuls of organic spinach, 1 banana, 1/2 cup of coconut milk, 1/2 cup of UVAB, 1 tbsp of coconut. I like it green.

Then I headed for the gym. Once I got to the gym I realized I forgot water bottle at home. Once I stepped on the treadmill I found out that my ipod was dead as well. Crap! I am not good without my ipod. I figured I’d do a quick 5 min warm up on the treadmill then do a quick weight session.

After my warm-up I did another week 3 of Winter Warm Up by Gina. You can check out my previous workout here. My only change was: Oblique Crunch with Dumbell – 15lbs.

After my weight sess I decided to do a 10 min run. 1 min run at 5.2, 1 min run at 6.0. It felt great! I rocked my workout!

When I go home I made a bagel sandwich with sliced Turkey, organic spinach and mozza.

With a side of organic baby tomatoes.

And a large bottle of water.

Yummy.

After lunch I did a little blogging and reading before I decided to go for a short 3.5 km walk. While walking I stopped at the grocery store and at booster juice to pick up a Pineapple Freeze.

Dinner tonight I adapted from Diana. I used her Easy Chicken Penne Arrabiata with Mozza and Basil.

Mine used the following ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 box of penne
• 15 mozza balls (I made from grated mozza)
• 1 jar of tomato sauce (I used a presidents choice 3 cheese pasta sauce)
• 2 handful of baby tomatoes
• red pepper flakes
• basil (I couldn’t find fresh so I had to use the spice instead)

First I cut the chicken breast and cook them with a few red pepper flakes.

As well I cut the tomatoes in half.

And I grated some mozza and rolled them into 15 balls.

While boiling the pasta I heated up the pasta sauce.

I added some more red pepper flakes and the tomatoes.

Then I added the chicken…

And mixed it in…

Finally I added the mozza balls and covered it with a lid for about 5 mins – until the cheese is melted. Then I sprinkled a few flakes of basil on top.

Delish! Dinner is served (with a piece of cheese bread I picked up from the bakery this afternoon – unpictured).

Dinner was awesome! Thanks Diana!

Now I’m going to watch 24 with the hubby and maybe finish Lost from last night. Night!

~ Katie :)

Trying New Things

Hey everyone! Tomorrow is Wednesday – hump day and then the week is half over.

Today’s breakfast and lunch eats were simple. Breakfast: homemade granola bar and a banana. Morning Snack: cheese string and pita chips. Lunch: a piece of leftover pizza, yogurt cup and kashi bar. I stopped taking my camera to work because I thought I lost it last week but maybe I’ll get my confidence back soon and be able to include pictures for you guys.

I also had half a Coconut Cream Larabar on my way to pick up Matt from work.

Dinner was something new. The other day I picked up a few new things at the grocery store so I thought I’d give them a try.

 

The nutritional info wasn’t too bad either…

This is for 1 cup servings.

I had no idea the amount of salt added in regular pasta sauce compared to no salt tomato paste – 630 mg compared to 60 mg. I decided to make my own sauce today.

I boiled my pasta and heated up the tomato paste in a pan. I have never made my own sauce so this was going to be an experiment for me. I didn’t look at a recipe and since I’m just working on my cooking skills I just started to throw spices in there.

What I think made it into the sauce:

• 2 cloves of grated garlic
• Onion Salt
• Garlic Powder
• Chilli Powder
• Thyme
• A little Ms. Dash
• And 3 Bay Leaves

I topped the pasta with some parmesan cheese.

I also served it up with some of Lynn’s brussel sprouts. Maple Balsamic brussel sprouts. I made a little mistake when I was making them. I just started grabbing things off the shelf and grabbed Red Wine Vinegar instead of Balsamic Vinegar. So I had to over correct myself and added a little more Balsamic Vinegar and more maple syrup.

Dinner is served…

Overall pretty good dinner. I think there was too much maple syrup on the brussel sprouts so I’d definitely follow the recipe next time and the sauce was ok but I might need to use the internet to help me figure out what spices should actually go into pasta sauce. I’ll try this meal again though. Just a few tweaks next time.

After dinner I headed to the gym and did a quick 5 min warm up on the elliptical and then did Winter Shape Up Week 3 using the same weights as before. I love this week. I think I might do it a couple more times before moving on.

I also picked up this today. I can’t wait to look through it. The pictures are gorgeous and the recipes look yummy.

Going to watch The Biggest Loser with the husband.

Night all!

~ Katie

Weekend Highlights

What a great weekend!

One of my best friends in the world was down and I got to spend some quality time with her. It was wonderful. I didn’t get any food blogging done but over all I actually ate pretty well.

Keri and I spend the day Saturday chatting and my place and then we finally decided to head out and grab a Starbucks. I finally caved and got the new Dark Cherry Chocolate Mocha. I’ve been dying to try this but been putting it off. It was pretty good. A little sweet for my liking. I think all I needed was a tall but it was a nice treat from my usual Vanilla Latte.

After we finished at Starbucks we both headed home for dinner and then Keri came back over. We had an evening of wine drinking and Wii playing planned but it ended up being more like pita chip/hummus snacking and chatting for us. Since she was here so late she ended up crashing on our couch and in the morning Matt got up and made us pancakes with fresh fruit and maple syrup for breakfast.

It was so nice catching up. She is leaving at the end of this week so I’m hoping to get together one more time before she leaves.

Since I didn’t take many pictures here a just a few of my weekend highlights:

Getting groceries I picked up some new tea: Yogi Organic Goji Berry Green Tea…

As well as some Pom Wonderful Pomegranate Juice…

I also had a delicious dinner Saturday night.  I was actually really impressed. We ended up eating really late because I had be out and usually we would just grab something easy but without even thinking about it we whipped up an easy and delicious dinner. BBQ ribs, roasted potatoes and roasted asparagus.

I also made one of the most delicious snacks on Sunday afternoon. I am so in love with this: Chocolate Vitamuffin Top, Greek Yogurt and some thawed frozen berries.

Sunday wasn’t too bad either. We were heading to my dad’s for a late birthday celebration for both my sister and myself as well as a late Easter celebration.

We had cheese and crackers for apps. Dinner was lots of salad, one Flaxseed Roll (my step-mother makes the best flaxseed rolls – she is finding the recipe for me and I will share them with all of you when I get it – yum), BBQ Chicken, BBQ Ribs (I know more ribs – I only had 2 last night) and carrots. Dessert was a small cupcake and some jello with strawberries. Overall, it was pretty healthy for a birthday/Easter celebration.

I also got in two great workouts over the weekend.

Friday morning was C25K week three. Run 90 sec, walk 90 sec, run 3 mins, walk 3 mins – times 2. Because it was cold and damp we decided to run on the treadmill. It was harder then I was expecting and I felt great after a quick 20 min run.

Saturday morning Matt and I got up bright and early and headed to the gym. I did Week 3 of Gina’s Winter Shape Up. I followed the exact same workout from the previous time. Afterwards, I headed to the Women’s gym to meet Jaime for yoga. It was a great way to start the weekend.

Today I started the morning with greek yogurt with a little peach/mango Liberte yogurt mixed in, granola and dried cranberries (no pic – sorry).

Snack was cheese string and Dark Chocolate Coconut Kashi Bar…

Lunch was Stacy’s Pita Chips, pb, apple, the last of my organic carrots and yogurt cup…

After work I needed to make a quick stop at the grocery store before picking up Matt. I was hungry and these where on sale…

 

If you’ve never had a Luna bar before they are almost like a rice crispy square with some chocolate on the bottom. This one had while chocolate on the bottom and a lemon flavour throughout. It was pretty good.

After I picked up Matt he wanted to chat about a few things so we headed downtown to try out a new restaurant: Gullabull’s Bar and Grill. For those of you in Halifax, it’s on Spring Garden Road where the old Ryan Duffy’s use to be.

We started with some Calamari…

Since we had something greasy for an appetizer I wanted something healthy for dinner. I opted for the Sunshine Shrimp Salad.

“House mix greens, tossed with mandarin oranges, golden raisins, shredded coconut, crumbled goat cheese, marinated grilled shrimp skewer. Topped with low fat honey yogurt mint dressing.

It was so good. I left feeling full but not bloated and disgusting.

I was actually really proud of myself for two reasons tonight. First, whenever we go out for dinner I always want to order more then just a salad. Second, I have never tried goat cheese and I never get salad’s with dressing so I was happy that I went outside my comfort zone and got something different, healthy and delicious.

I’m not sure what’s my plan for the rest of the evening. But I’m thinking maybe a Vitamuffin top might be dessert later.

Link Love:

• If you didn’t catch my post on the weekend on Teaching Operation Beautiful please check it out. I really appreciate all the lovely comments from everyone. You were all so sweet.
• Lynn at Life, Health and Fitness is hosting an awesome giveaway for some Prairie Natural’s Protein Powder. She has been saying wonderful things about this so I really want to give this protein powder a try. Check out the link here: http://lifehealthfit.blogspot.com/2010/04/prairie-naturals-review-giveaway.html

~ Katie :)