You like free junk?

Heeeyyyyy. We’re halfway through the week!! [insert giant smiley face here]

First things first. Thank you all for chiming in on my wondering rambles about the grey stuff around egg yolks.

Most of you said it’s caused by a) overcooking, and b) letting them cool too slowly. Culinary student Kristin laid it all out:

Susan,

The reason for the “ring” around your egg yolk is sulfur, a compound that is created when eggs are overcooked. (It also causes that yucky boiled egg smell- it can be avoided!) Either you are overcooking them too long in the water (it needs to be timed!) or you do not cool them immediately in COLD water to stop the cooking, put them in the fridge and they continue cooking in the shell. They do NOT cool that fast in the fridge, it’s the opposite!! I wrote a post on it here:http://kristinsnibbles.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/the-perfect-food

xo
K

Guilty and guilty! I am 100% aware that I overcook my eggs. I usually just bring the pot to a boil, turn it off, then walk away and forget about it. Eventually, I remember I have eggs on the stove and put them in the fridge. I can’t say I will time my eggs for exactly 10 minutes from now on, but I’ll at least refrain from walking away :P

In other news, I actually grabbed a shot of my pre-workout snack this morning.

 
I usually eat around 100-200 calories of carbs, sugar and nut butter before hitting the gym every morning. It can’t not eat the second I roll out of bed, but I only have 30 minutes to digest between eating this and hitting “start” button on the cardio machine.

Future roommie Megan (hi Megan!!) asked me if I eat a lot of protein on rest days as well. If anything I eat more because this carby pre-workout snack is taken out of the equation. Our diets are always a work in progress, no?

P.S. I roll it up. Scientific data shows that food tastes better when rolled.

I hit up the heavy weights again this week after a lighter upper-body day last week. No two workouts are ever the same around these parts! Too much fun fitness stuff to experiment with.

Warmed-up for 25 minutes on the treadmill first. 

Minutes	Speed – MPH	Incline
0-5	3.5	0.0
5-6	5.5	0.0
6-7	6.0	0.0
7-8	6.5	0.0
8-9	7.0	0.0
9-10	5.5	0.5
10-11	6.0	0.5
11-12	6.5	0.5
12-13	7.0	0.5
13-14	5.5	1.0
14-15	6.0	1.0
15-16	6.5	1.0
16-17	7.0	1.0
17-18	5.5	1.5
18-19	6.0	1.5
19-20	6.5	1.5
20-21	7.0	1.5
21-22	5.5	2.0
22-23	6.0	2.0
23-24	6.5	2.0
24-25	7.0	2.0

This treadmill routine is getting too easy for me!! I used to finish this breathless, and I hopped off feeling fine today. Will do harder next time.

 

Exercise	Weight	Reps	Sets	Target
Straight sets:
Assisted pull-up	70 lbs	4-6	4	Back
Barbell bench press	50 lbs	4-6	4	Chest
Romanian deadlift to row	50 lb barbell	4-6	4	Back
Push-up	bodyweight	3	4	Chest
Dumbbell shoulder press	17.5 lb dumbbells	4-6	4	Shoulders
Alternating sets:
YTWL	7.5 lb dumbbells	5 each letter	3	Shoulders
Tricep pulldown	30 lbs	8	3	Triceps
Cable bicep curl	20 lbs	8	3	Biceps

Finished off with a sweaty 10 minutes on the stepmill.

I’m really starting to wish I had a spotter for these high-weight days. I originally picked up 20 lb dumbbells for my shoulder presses and almost lost it. It was frightening! My arm wobbled backwards and I barely regained control. I could have really injured myself :(

I arrived at the office shortly after for a wonderful breakfast I had packed away.

SO filling! Two mini bagels with egg whites, mustard and ham. Meat in the morning fills me up like none other.

Morning snack came late.

 
New batch of apple cinnamon protein bars. I still think these are my fave flavour for the homemade bars. Cinnamon and oatmeal is just such a killer combo…

Lunch!

The return of the pita! It’s been a while! This was was ohsogood with baba ganouj and turkey as the base. Then stuffed silly with all the veggies I had in my fridge.

For my afternoon snack I mixed vanilla cottage cheese with plain yogurt and strawberries.

My last container of strawberries were quite sweet and flavourful, these are borderline bitter with no flavour. Boo.

I also snacked on some nuts and dried cranberries at 4pm because I am always SO hungry by the time 4pm rolls around. I am ready to gnaw my arm off by the time I bust through the door after work. More tweaking may be needed to fix this issue. A diet is always in a state of progress, never is it perfect!

I am glad I had the extra snack because dinner was worth waiting for!!

Janetha’s Turkey Goulash

recipe adapted from the eating for life cookbook.

serves 6

ingredients:

• 20 ounces lean ground turkey breast I used a lb. Is that 20 oz?
• 1 (14.5 oz) can roasted garlic & onion diced tomatoes
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic. I used an extra for good luck.
• 1 yellow squash Used spaghetti squash as extra filler
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 zucchini Again, I added another for good luck
• 1 red onion Used half a gigantic one
• 1 (10 oz) can tomato sauce Used garlic & herb flavour
• 2 TB fresh basil 2 tsp dried basil. Boo.
• egg white noodles
• added mushrooms, lots of them

I usually don’t like noodles because I find they’re too squishy, heavy and tasteless. But I love these Catelli Healthy Harvest whole wheat yolk free noodles!

I had only half a serving tonight, which was one heaping cup of cooked pasta, and still got 4g of fibre for 155 calories.

 
Thumbs up JB!!! My tummy is thanking you right now :)

 

In case you missed it, I’m giving away free shizz because the people who read this blog rock my socks, and everyone needs a little blueberry syrup in their life. 

As a small disclaimer, don’t expect to see a lot of giveaways on this blog. I’ve sort of made an unofficial decision to turn down company offers unless they really line up with my area of interest, or I think they could be of real benefit. I really don’t want to give junk away just because I can. And I don’t want to feature junk on here just because I get it for free. I’m aware that I may not get as many readers because of this, but I hope that I can instead draw people in through quality content :) Blame my old journalism professors, they instilled some sort of lame set of beliefs in me :P

 

Question of the Day: Giveaways, yay or nay? Some turn me off by how obvious of a plug they are, but some are a fun way to share interesting products with people :)