Rest, Relax, Recharge

So today turned out to be a bit of a write-off. Well, depending on your definition of a write-off. I slept awful last night, including waking up at 6:30 a.m. Apparently, my body clock still hates me.

Today was supposed to be my “hard” gym day. 60 min on the treadmill with upper body weights + abs. To start, my butt is beyond sore from doing squats yesterday. Not only am I waddling everywhere, but using the washroom is teary-eyed painful (ladies, please tell me you know what I’m talking about). Also, severe glute pain makes me nervous about my old-lady hips. The two are sometimes connected for me, and squats have blown out my hips in the past.

On top of the pain, my body is just non responsive. I feel like I somehow gained 200 pounds overnight. Moving just seems like such a chore. I’ve also napped three times today, and feel another one coming on…

Yup, sounds like a little exhaustion to me. If I was a smart person, I would have taken this first week at my new job off from all exercise. Of course, these are usually things I only learn after the fact. I had no way of predicting this past week would be so mentally and physically draining on me.

So now I’m doing the lag work. Trying to fix the damage that was done. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) some may-jah stuff happened in my personal life today. My emotions are a little rocky at the moment. I need some time to reflect and become used to the idea before I let the world know.

 

So how’s that for a start to a blog? In all honesty though, I don’t really feel like the day has bean a real write-off. In fact, allowing my body to rest and repair is probably the most useful thing I’ve done all week!! I didn’t get dressed until 5pm, at which point I just put a nicer set of pyjamas on :P

Breakfast was made in a complete haze. I actually destroyed my first attempt at french toasted waffles because I forgot to spray the pan :\

Second attempt was much better :) With fake syrup whisked with Naturally More almond butter for dipping. Yum.

I awoke from nap #1 hungry again. I dug into my bar stash and pulled out a Glo Bar Angela gave me when we met.

I love how crispy these are :)

I watched two documentaries on marathons today! First, Spirit of the Marathon which is apparently up for free on Hulu, but I can’t get that in Canada so I just watched it on YouTube. I thought it was okay. The race itself was a little too dramatized and the nerd in me wanted to hear more about the training part of it (which in my mind, seems harder than the race itself). Twitter to the rescue, I got directed towards a PBS Nova documentary called Marathon Challenge (which is available on the PBS website or Veoh for non-Americans). This one is about a handful of non-athletes defying the odds to run a marathon. I enjoyed this one a lot more. They dove more into the science and struggles of the training regimen.

I think there was another nap in there too? At some point I had lunch.
 
Everything bagel with Fontaine Santé tofu spread, carrots, green pepper and hummus. Nomnomnom. Not enough protein, but mega tasty.

Made up the lack of protein later in the day with some quark!!

 

Why is it orange you ask? I added some leftover baby food carrots and a crumbled carrot cake protein square. Oh yes.

It actually kinda reminded me of pumpkin. It got me thinking about all the other baby food purees out there and how they could be added to yogurt and oats. Will have to take a gander next time I’m at the grocery store!

Supper was more protein + orange. Tuna salad + butternut squash fries.
  
In the tuna salad is onions, pickles, mustard, laughing cow cheese. Put on toast with some spinach and sprouts. The key to non-soggy b-nut squash fries is to squeeze out all the juice with paper towel before baking them, and flipping them every 5 minutes once they’re in the oven. Well, I guess they’ll always be kinda soggy, but it at least helps the cause :)

 

I also did a lot of unpictured snacking today. But posting these pics, I realize that even though I had a lot of food today, I think the worst of it was just a small handful of M&Ms. It was otherwise fresh and healthy stuff. I just don’t have the energy to not snack today. I feel too blaaaah to tell if it’s real hunger or not. So I’m just going with it.  It’s just one of those days.

Goal for tomorrow is to prepare food and meals for the week! And hopefully see a friend who had a baby over the holidays. Should be fun, so long as she doesn’t ask me to hold it ;) Think I’ll take one more rest day from exercise tomorrow, and start Monday fresh and early with my favourite spin class :) Hope y’all had a wonderful Saturday!!

 

Question of the Day: What is your favourite documentary?? I don’t know if it’s the journalist in me, but I love documentaries. Maybe even more than real movies. Grizzly Man is one that will always stand out in my memory. You should check it out!

Home is where the workout is

Hello friends! Hope everyone had a good weekend, or long weekend if you had one of those too ;)

So today was my last shift at Starbucks. I had high hopes of getting up early, shovelling the wall of snow at the end of my driveway, and heading to the gym for a treadmill date before work. Yeah. Looked outside and it was still dark and raining. Tackling the snow boulders the plow leaves behind didn’t sound too appealing at that hour. Luckily, Chris and I turned my apartment into a workout friendly place last night! Check it…

This is what my bachelor apartment looked like before…

There was a lot of debate about how to set up my small space when I moved in. My mom and sis were adamant on having my dinner table in the living room. But it didn’t leave me much space in there, and left my sleeping area open to the rest of the apartment.

After a little rearranging, here’s what I’m now working with…

The coffee table is pushed to the side in that photo, but it still provides much more open space than before. My bed is now behind the couch, so my sleeping area is sort of “cut off” from the living room. It’s how I originally wanted the couch, and as soon as Chris and I moved it, I immediately felt a sense of comfort in my own home. Something I haven’t really had yet. My mom believes in all that Feng Shui stuff, and I can see why now. I feel so much better in my space already!

The kitchen table is also where I originally wanted it…

The microwave stand that was there is a little awkward in it’s new spot, but I’ve only got so much space to work with.

My first living room workout turned out to be a stellar one!! I started with 40 minutes speed intervals on the trainer. I originally planned on 20 minutes, but then figured and extra 10 wouldn’t hurt, then pushed out another 10! It helped that I was being entertained by the television (watching one of my old classmates do live hits on a national news network!!!!).

The trainer itself is kinda fun. It was nice to be on my own bike. Unlike spin bikes, mine is set up to fit me perfectly. It was weird having the back wheel spin though! I was a sweaty mess. I’ll have to put a mat underneath it. The lack of fancy air system in my apartment made a big difference.

As you probably spied in the above photos – I tried Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred for the first time!

I did Level 1 which consists of three circuits. Each circuit has 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio, 1 minute abs. I’ve heard Level 1 is easy – but I found it quite challenging! Albeit, I was kinda wiped from my bike sesh. But the quality of a workout is always the quality of the work you put in ;)

Oh, and the best part? I burned 500+ calories in 67 minutes! In my living room. Love it :D

 

Now how about some random eats? Some highlights if you will ;)

Last night I tried a new-to-me product – quark!!

 
I remembered Ellie telling me about this stuff she can buy in Scotland that resembles Greek yogurt (which I can’t buy here). Pretty sure my eyes bulged out of my head when I spotted it in the grocery store.

Apparently, quark is a cheese. The nutritionals are awesome.

Ellie said it’s quite thick, but this stuff was more just like a thick yogurt. But with a slight cheesy taste underneath the typical yogurt “tang.” I ate it the usual way…

With stevia, vanilla extract, strawberries, ground flax and unsweetened coconut. Messed up, of course ;)

I really, really liked it! If it wasn’t so dang expensive, I’d add it to my regular rotation. Alas, it will have to remain a special treat.

Other random eats include a new-to-me Simply Bar flavour – Lemon Coconut.

 

It was “meh.” Too much lemon, not enough coconut. The lemon flavour reminded me of the Lemon Zest Luna a little, but not nearly as sweet. If anything, it was a little too plain.

 

I got sent home from work early today because the mall was d-e-a-d. Apparently, no one else wanted to attack their driveway snow boulders. It was pretty sweet, as I was definitely not feeling my last shift at the Bucks today. Plus, I got to come home and bake!

Carrot Cake Protein Bars 

I found this recipe here but I can’t find the original on Jamie Eason’s website. Here’s what I used:

• 1 cup oat flour (made by putting rolled oats in my coffee grinder)
• 2 tsp 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp allspice 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
• 3 egg whites
• 3/4 cup 1/2 cup Splenda
• 1/2 cup fat free low-fat Ricotta cheese
• 24oz 7oz baby food carrots
• 2 scoops vanilla whey protein
• 1 cup quick cooking rolled oats

Mix up dry ingredients, add the wet stuff. Pour in a 9×9 pan and bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

I cut it into 16 squares, each having 74 calories, 1g fat, 5g carbs, 1g sugar, 1g fibre, 10g protein. Not too shabby! The best part is that they actually taste good!!! Yes Deb, even with the protein powder! :P Next time I’ll add a little shredded carrot, golden raisins and walnuts, but like this they are quite edible.

 

I tried out another random recipe for dinner: Indian Cauliflower Stew.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 med. carrots, chopped
1 med. onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh ginger
1 Tbsp. curry powder
Salt
2 1/2 C vegetable broth
1 med. head cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 (15 oz.) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 C chopped cilantro leaves
1/4 C plain lowfat yogurt

Directions
In a dutch oven, heat oil and add carrots and onion. Cook 10-12 mins or until tender. Stir in ginger, curry, and 3/4 tsp. salt into mixture, cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth, cover and heat to boiling. Stir in cauliflower and chickpeas. Cover and cook on medium 15-20 minutes longer, gently stirring until cauliflower is tender. Stir in chopped cilantro and yogurt. Serve over rice.

I pretty much followed the recipe to a tee. Only changes were that I added 1/2 tsp ground ginger instead of the fresh stuff, 1 tsp ground cumin, and ate it over top a bed of shredded chicken ;) I loved this. I don’t make a lot of Indian food at home, I should!

 

Last but not least, here’s a photo I swiped from the New Year’s party – better late than never!

 
There’s obviously a lot more, but I don’t really want to post pics of Chris’ friends without their permission! I was a little overdressed for the party, but I didn’t give a damn. It was New Year’s – I wanted to feel pretty!

 

Hm. This post was kinda all over the place. Keeping ya on your toes ;)

 

Question of the Day: What’s your favourite “ethnic” food to make at home? I guess I use the term ethnic lightly here, perhaps “regional” would be more appropriate. Mine’s mostly North American, but I like making Greek-inspired stuff. I also much prefer my homemade Chinese-inspired dishes to the stuff I buy in restaurants.

 

See ya tomorrow for a recap on my first day at my new job!! Eeeee!!!