Twitter name change?

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

More on the twitter name change later. First some food porn…

Got up this morning and we were running a little late so breakfast this morning was on the go. Banana and cheese string. Not the best breakfast but got a little protein and and some natural sugars and fibre.

During the day I snacked on Gala apple, cheese string and a Cherry and Dark Chocolate Kashi bar. I actually wasn’t too hungry by the time lunch arrived. My random food seemed to tide me over for more of the day.

 

Lunch was the last of the leftover pasta and some carrots. I love carrots. They are healthy and so filling.

After I picked up Matt from work we decided to do Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown. I’m going to try to do a more in-depth review of this DVD this weekend but right now I’m loving this workout. I love the yoga moves combined with some cardio and strength training. I’m going to feel the burn tomorrow.

Before yoga we split a bagel and had a glass of chocolate milk…

Dinner was a scallop stir-fry. In the wok: scallops, green, yellow and red peppers, carrots and red pepper flakes. All in a little teriyaki sauce…

I will admit Matt did most of the cooking tonight but doesn’t it look delicious!!!

Served with a small amount a rice. Oh so good…

Today I also picked up a few new cook books from the library. I can’t wait to go through them and find some new recipes.

I love getting some new recipes to try. I’m loving the library now. I’m not great at creating my own but I love to adapt recipes from books to meet whatever I have around the house.

So I have a dilemma. I am just wondering about my twitter name. I have noticed that most people’s twitter user names reflect their blog titles. So the question is Should I change my twitter user name to reflect my blog? All opinions and thoughts are welcome. I’m very torn on this issue and would love some insight from the twitter/blog world.

Thanks.

~ Katie :)

Who will stop the rain?

That’s how I feel right now. I hate the cold and depressing rain. It never helps my mood and I’m already missing the sun from last week.

So this morning started started with my first outdoor run of the year. I am really not a runner but I’ve always wanted to be. I can run about 3km on a treadmill but not much more then that and not really outside. I know for my running is all mental. I don’t think I can do it so I can’t. I’ve decided to change that. After doing some research and talking to some runners I’ve heard nothing but good things about The Couch to 5 Km program.

Today was day 1, week 1. I knew going to bed last night that the rain was going to start but I really wanted to start and I if I had to do the first day on the treadmill then I would. When I got up and looked out the window it was a bit misty but not raining very hard so I put on my sneakers and hit the pavement. Matt has decided to do this program with me so it’s great to have a running buddy.

Today was simple:

Walk for a 90 secs, run for 60 secs for a total of 8 times or 20 mins.

It was an easier run then what I would usually do on the treadmill but being outside made it much more difficult plus we really pushed ourselves during the running segment. It felt great.

Before running I grabbed and cheese string and half a glass of oj I won from Lynn’s giveaway. Tropicana is so good!

After the run I had half a bagel with peanut butter…

Snacks at school consisted of blueberries, another cheese string and a Kashi bar…

Lunch was leftover pasta and yogurt…

Today was pomegranate blueberry. This flavour rocked!

After work I got home and had some lemon liberte yogurt and granola before having to pick Matt up from work. I’m addicted to this yogurt. I really try to only have a little bit at a time and no more then once a day. Self-control right?

I just woke up from the best nap ever and waiting for Matt  so we can figure out dinner. The Biggest Loser will also be on the plan for this evening. Have a great evening everyone and lets all pray for this rain to stop soon.

~ Katie :)

Sleepless Night

First I wanted to start off tonight’s blog by thanking everyone again for reading. I wanted to try to reply to almost everyone’s post but I this weekend was pretty up-plugged and this week is going to be insane. I apologize if I didn’t reply to you or thank someone new for following. I really appreciate it and I’ve defiantly noticed. Thanks :)

If you follow me on twitter you might have noticed my tweets today about how crazy my day was. I think it’s going to be like this at least this week and maybe into next week too. Report cards are coming up and as any other teacher out there realizes that report card week is usually hell week for a teacher. Bring it on!

So back to my regular schedule post. So yesterday I got tons on comments on my 5:15 gym time. Yes, I usually try to get up early and make it to the gym but this morning was a little different. Last night I went to bed as scheduled and was all set to go to the gym this morning but when I was in bed I couldn’t sleep. And not just a little of not sleeping but I didn’t fall asleep until 2:00 or 2:30. This is not good when your alarm is going off a few hours later. Even when the alarm went off I was still going to drag my butt out of bed and make it to the gym but Matt wouldn’t let me. He said I would never make it through the day and be able to function with that little sleep so I put my head back on the pillow and got another couple of hours sleep. So no early morning gym for me today :(

When I finally got up breakfast was simple. Raisin Bran Cereal with some skim milk.

 

Lunch was leftover turkey burger and a yogurt cup. Passion fruit acai berry yogurt. Found this at superstore yesterday. It was very tasty.

Throughout the school day I also snacked on a Cherry Dark Chocolate Kashi Bar, cheese string and a banana. All unpictured.

Dinner was pasta and salad. In the ss (salad spinner) organic spinach, carrots, red, green and yellow peppers, cucumber and cheddar cheese.

On a plate…

Pasta with ground beef and sauce…

After dinner I relaxed for a little while before heading out to yoga with Jaime. On the way I grabbed another Kashi bar (I really need to make some more of my granola bars). I felt great to get some exercise in and stretch. I haven’t been an actually yoga class in a while. I’m really going to have to do that more often. Thanks girlie :)

I’m treating myself to some lemon liberte yogurt, mini eggs and a glass of milk.

I’m going to relax for a little while (maybe do a little reading) before heading to bed. I am defiantly getting up tomorrow for the gym.

~ Katie :)

Does anyone else every have trouble sleeping? If so how do you end up falling asleep? Any tricks? I am usually very good about sleeping but I’d say once a month I have a night where I can’t sleep and the more I try the worse it gets and I’m up for hours. Any advice for those evenings would be greatly appreciated.

Turkey Burgers & Strawberry Salad

Good Evening Everyone.  I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weekend. Unfortunately, I didn’t get out much to enjoy it but I did get to do some other fun things like shopping  and groceries :)

This morning I slept in. It’s the last day of March Break and I just wanted to enjoy before it’s and early morning again tomorrow. We had a ton to do today so I had a quick but protein filled breakfast. Greek yogurt, granola and blueberries.

I love using the end of the container…

After breakfast Matt and I spend some time cleaning, doing laundry, ironing and marking (well I did the marking and he didn’t the ironing). During this time we ate some leftover chinese food from last night that Matt ordered last night at 11:00. I stuck to and egg roll and some fried won tons. Not the healthiest lunch but we were busy bees.

The it was time to do some shopping. Banana Republic had emailed me a coupon a few days ago. 30% your entire purchase this weekend. So we went in I picked up a shirt and a couple of sweaters and Matt picked up a pair of pants. I also got my jeans from there on Friday. I love getting great deals :)

Then we went to the grocery store and got lots and lots of yummy food. I love grocery shopping day.

Dinner was amazing. Turkey burgers, roasted potatoes and strawberry salad.

Salad consisted of: spinach, cucumber, yellow peppers and strawberries.

We picked up a salad spinner a few months ago and it was one of the best  purchases. It cleans and mixes up the veggies all at the same time.

Turkey burgers with a slice of cheddar cheese and  whole wheat bread. Roasted potatoes: a little EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), garlic powder, onion salt, salt, fresh pepper, basil, rosemary and thyme. Then roasted them in the oven for 30 mins. They were perfect. I would defiantly recommend this meal. Easy, healthy and delicious.

Turkey burgers and potatoes…

Salad on the side…

After dinner I might have had a few of these as well…

Now I’m going be spend some time catching up on some TV with the hubby…24, Lost and The Biggest Loser are on the DVR tonight. I’m also thinking about the Lemon LIberte yogurt that I picked up today. I’m thinking that it would go great with the last of the strawberries.

Back to early morning gym tomorrow (I can already hear the alarm going off at 5:15 tomorrow morning) and work. Hope everyone has a great Sunday evening.

~ Katie :)

A Quickie Post

Didn’t get to post yesterday. Spend most of the day away from the computer hanging out with my husband.

Here’s a quick recap of my day yesterday and today.

Woke up yesterday with a pounding headache so went back to bed and didn’t get up until almost noon. This basically through off my entire day of eating.

Once I finally got out of bed I grabbed my last granola bar (unpictured) and some hummus, mulitgrain tostitos and the last of the carrots and a large glass of water for lunch. Not much but wasn’t feeling too hungry.

Then Matt and I spent the afternoon shopping (I got a new pair of jeans) and visiting and just basically enjoying the beautiful weather we’re having here in Halifax.

By the time we got home we both were starving so we ordered pizza and garlic fingers. I know not very healthy but oh so yummy.

Then we curled up on the couch and had a little Academy Awards movie marathon. We watched The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air. I enjoyed both but defiantly liked Up in the Air better. I ♥ George Clooney.

This morning got up to meet the girls at Starbucks.

 

Lynn, Tasha, Angie and Jamie. Leslie also showed up later but we didn’t manage to get any pics with her. I had such a great time. Thanks girlies :)

Didn’t have time to eat so I got a grande, non-fat, carmeal macchiato and a lemon carnberry scone.

 

We spent 4 hours there so I ended up ordering a Passion Ice-Tea Lemonade as well (unpictured).

When I finally managed to get home I made a bagel with some peanut butter before hitting the gym.

First attempt. Burnt…

Much better…

With pb…

Then I hit the gym for a quick workout (since I missed yesterday’s due to my headache). I did 5 mins of incline walking to warm up then Winter Shape Up Week 2. I did all the same exercises except for the following changes:

Stationary Lunges 24lbs, 10 Girly Push Ups instead of Wall Push ups and Bicep Curls 20lbs.

I can feel myself getting stronger and I can’t wait to try week three on Monday.

Now going to have some dinner and chill for the rest of the evening. I can feel some leftover pizza in my future. I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

~ Katie :)

Pancakes pt. 1

So ever since Lynn blogged about her pancakes that she had on the weekend I have been craving them. So since I was taking it easy today I figured that today would be a perfect day to get up and make some pancakes. I even dragged Matt to the store yesterday to pick up some Maple Syrup and blueberries for them.

A few weeks ago when I was at Planet Organic I saw this whole wheat flax seed pancake mix and I just had to have it. I figured it would be a great way to make an old favourite more healthy.  So I set my alarm this morning intending to make Matt and I some whole wheat, flax seed, blueberry pancakes. Sounds good, right? Not so much. The first pancake was a complete and utter fail. The second one actually turned out pretty good but Matt had no interest in eating my healthy version of my pancakes. He said they looked like sand (they kinda did).

I think this weekend there will be a Pancakes pt. 2 post where we try again but this time going back our old favourite (and not so healthy) version. I’ll keep you posted.

Check out some pics of my pancake morning:

You can definatly see the difference between the two…

 

After my interesting morning with pancakes it was time for my pedicure with Jaime. We decided on twitter yesterday that it was time for us to start enjoying this beautiful weather and get our toes done.

I decided to go with pink…

Afterwards we went to starbucks. I got my usual non-fat vanilla latte. Unfortunately neither of us took pics.

By the time I got home it was defiantly lunch time. Going with my theme of not working out I looked in the freezer found some perogies and cooked them up with a huge plate of veggies and greek yogurt to dip.

 

Even though I wasn’t planning on hitting the gym today I was planning on going for a nice long walk with Matt to enjoy the beautiful weather again. Before that happened I wanted to do a quick tidy of the place. A quick tidy turned into a three hour long cleaning session. Man, cleaning is hard work. I had worked up a sweat by the time I was done. We didn’t quite get out for our walk but I got a ton accomplished around the house. During my cleaning session I snacked on one of these (again)…

Do you see all the chocolate chips in that baby! I guess I didn’t mix very well.

Dinner was simple yet delicious. Annie’s Organic White Chedder Mac and Cheese

With some broccoli…

I added a little of my own cheddar to make it a little more cheesy.

Now it’s time to watch the Vampire Diaries (it’s a repeat and I need to play catch up) and snack on a little fruit.

Hope everyone had a great day.

~ Katie :)

Let me know what you think of my pictures. I’ve been testing out different boarders on each post. Do you have a favourite? If so leave a comment below.

Fruit Paradise

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day Everyone

Ok, so I didn’t really do much to celebrate…well I didn’t do anything. I did have spinach on my sandwich at lunch. I know sad right :(

It was so beautiful and sunny in Halifax today.

So yesterday I finally picked up some peanut butter and oats which was the plan for this morning but last night I was up very late on twitter so I didn’t get my butt out of bed until late so I had to settle for toast with peanut butter, half a banana and half a glass of OJ. It was great to have some pb again.

I wanted to hit the gym before lunch as soon as I was done eating I headed to the gym. Nothing interesting to report. I did the same workout as Monday.

Treadmill for 10 mins at 5.4. Ran approx. 1.5km. My run was very difficult today. My hips are starting to get sore from running 3 days in a row. Luckily I don’t have a run planned again until Sunday. I need a few days off.

Afterwards I did Winter Shape Up Challenge Week 2 again. With the say changes that I made on Monday.

Came home and I was starving so I knew a sandwich (same as yesterday) was in order. Whole wheat bagel, turkey, spinach and mozza. This time I opted for some water instead of a green smoothie. I was super thirsty.

In the afternoon I snacked on another homemade granola bar.

I wanted to pick up a couple of things at the grocery store so I dragged Matt with me. Here’s just a few of the things we picked up.

Do you see how big the box of strawberries is? $3.97 at Sobeys. That’s it!!!! I also picked up some Maple Syrup and blueberries for breakfast tomorrow.

Soon as I got home I knew I wanted some fresh fruit. Strawberries, pineapple and blackberries with a side of coconut yogurt as dip. Fruit and sun = Paradise!

 

(I promise there were strawberries under there)

So I was planning on going out for a walk this afternoon with Matt but as I said before my hips are sore from my running and I just couldn’t do it. Planning on getting out and enjoying the sun tomorrow.

Supper was homemade pizza. I’m about to tell everyone something that is going to make me a strange food blogger…I don’t like veggies on my pizza. I love veggies almost any other way but just not on my pizza. Weird? I’m a meat lovers gal.

Pizza consisted of chicken, hamburger and turkey bacon. I had two slices. Nom Nom.

I might have snacked on another granola bar too (I promise they are almost gone).

I hope everyone has a great St. Patrick’s Day!

~ Katie :)