Showing posts with label meals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meals. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Testing New Meal Ideas

This morning I woke up feeling pretty tired and couldn’t convince myself to go to the gym. Instead I rolled over and slept until it was time to get up for work. Last night I slept better than I have in a few weeks; uninterrupted pure sweet sleep. This is probably why I was so tired this morning.

Work started at 6am for me. Breakfast included a large mug of English Breakfast tea, bowl of Kashi Honey and Cinnamon oatmeal, and a serving of no sugar added applesauce. After breakfast and a bit more work. I did my only source of exercise today which was push-ups and sit-ups.

I started out with my progress test for the onehundredpushups program. I’ve been “stuck” on Week 4 for about two weeks, not because I felt like I needed to spend extra time on it but because for two weeks I forgot to do Day 3 of Week 4. Instead of starting Week 4 again for the third week in a row, I decided to proceed on to the progress test. I had to do as many pushups as I could at one time. This number helps me to determine which column I start in for Week 5, which I’ll begin on Sunday. I managed to pump out 44 pushups.

Next I finished Day 3 of Week 3 for the twohundredsitups program. I’ll start Week 4 on Monday. Like the pushups I managed to spend two weeks on Week 3 because I kept missing one day. I’m going to do my best to finish out these next two to three weeks correctly. Both the push-ups and sit-ups took me all of 15 minutes. That’s what I call a workout, lol, although, I’m itching to do something else. I’ll force myself to rest because my foot is still sore :(

For lunch, I had a Morningstar Farm Spicy Black Bean Burger on Ezekiel bread with medium cheddar cheese, red onion, spinach, and some ketchup. Delicious! Really enjoyed how all the flavors blended so well. My stomach felt content but still light. Not overly full! It was my first time trying Ezekiel bread as well as the black bean burger. I got the idea from ELR. She comes up with fantastic meals, making it very easy for me. Just means that I don’t have to think of new ideas on my own. I’m learning from other’s suggestions and experiences while building and creating my own! I rounded out my meal with Salsa Garden Sun Chips and a glass of skim milk.



Dinner was another new experience for me. I attempted to make Alaska Smoked Salmon Summer Pasta Salad. I first tried the salad at a wine festival at the beginning of June. They handed out a little pamphlet with several smoked salmon recipes, which included the pasta salad. I’ve wanted to recreate it for some time. I finally found most of the ingredients for the salad. Although the salmon is not from Alaska....shh, don't tell anyone. I invited my mom, sister, and the kiddos over to be my guinea pigs! It took me about 1 hour to finish the whole meal (prep and cook time). I’m a bit slow, but know I can make it quicker now that I know what I’m doing. We learned that the kids liked smoked salmon by itself! Dinner included the pasta salad and fresh cut peaches.



I thought it turned out pretty good. My mom and sister gave it two thumbs up (well that’s how I’m interpreting it, lol). I didn’t give it time to marinate, so I’m interested to see how it tastes tomorrow when I eat the leftovers for lunch.

I’d say my day of new food experiences was a success! I’m looking forward to incorporating these dishes into my meals in the future.

Friday, July 17, 2009

7/17 Meals/Workout

Meal 1: Over-easy fried egg with 2 slices of whole wheat bread, applesauce, English Breakfast tea
Meal 2: Tri-color chickpea salad with Kashi whole grain crackers, hardboiled egg, glass of skim milk
Snack: Kashi chewy granola bar
Meal 3: Chicken breast, homemade sweet potato fries, broccoli, glass of skim milk
Snack: 4 Squares Lindt Dark Chocolate

Workout:
10 minute warm-up walk on treadmill
chest/shoulders/tris
3 sets of morning stretches - 20lb barbell
3 sets of leg raises (laying on bench)
20 minutes on Stairmaster (Free Climber) - level 8, 9, 10
Stretch

Thursday, July 16, 2009

7/16 Meals/Workout

Meal 1: Kashi Go Lean Honey & Cinnamon Oatmeal, hardboiled egg, English Breakfast tea
Snack: Sugar free Pomegranate Applesauce and handful of blackberries
Meal 2: Leftover spaghetti, spinach leaf salad w/ sprouts, raisens, and low-fat ranch dressing (ick!)
Snack: Blackberry yogurt (Dannon Lite and Fit) <-- do you sense a theme?!
Meal 3: Chicken breast, homemade sweet potato fries (seasoned w/extra virgin olive oil, paprika, pepper, and sea salt), and steamed broccoli
Snack: 4 squares of the Lindt Dark Chocolate with a touch of sea salt

Workout:
Week 3/Day 2 of twohundredsitups

I got a little lazy today. Because of traffic I got home too late to make it to my Boot Camp class, so sad. So I sat down for 30 minutes to rest thinking I could convince myself to go to the gym to lift. Yeah, no luck in that department. Plus it was too hot to go running, too hot for me anyways! So instead I did my sit-ups and called it a night :) I did make a very tasty dinner though, highly satisfying.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

CHOCOLATE and Energy Bar Mix-Up

After work today, I ran a few quick errands. My first stop was Sports Authority to return/exchange a pair of running shorts I bought last Friday. I’ve never worn running shorts and wasn’t sure how they were supposed to fit. So I wanted to try a size down from what I got. Figured out the size I bought was correct but also found out the shorts were on sale this week. So I got the $4 back, but exchanged them for a different color because I also found a purple Nike Dri-Fit tank top, on clearance, that matched a pair of dark brown/black and purple running shorts perfectly! Score!! I’ll write more about my new running outfit in a future post.

My next stop was to head next door to Borders. I wasn’t in search of a good book (although I’m always looking for a good read), but my mission was to find this chocolate:



I can’t take credit for finding this chocolate on my own. I kept reading Eat.Live.Run’s (ELR) blog about her discovery of this chocolate. I’m a huge chocolate lover and she just kept talking about how fantastic it was. Here’s where I first read about it (scroll down). I just had to try, so into Borders I went. Got up to the register and the lady asked me if I found everything and then she realized that I was only buying chocolate. I laughed and excitedly said YES!! She got a good chuckle out of it!

My review…I totally agree with ELR. It’s delicious, smooth, and melts in your mouth! At the end of the bite, it's like small salt crystals materialize and a small hint of salt hits the taste buds. I looked at the chocolate closely but couldn't see any granules of salt, magic? Ha! I'm not a big fan of salt in my sweets, but I think it works well with this chocolate bar.

My last stop was to the Vitamin Shoppe. I was looking to try the Amazing Grass Chocolate Whole Food Energy Bar. Again, I heard about these on ELR’s blog. They are all natural. When I went into the store I was a bit unprepared. I thought the name of the company was “Organic Green Superfood” and it wasn’t. What I figured out is that this is language that some natural food companies use (from what I gather anyways). I am just learning about all this natural food stuff. Long story short, I walked out with these:


I had a feeling they weren’t what I was looking for. I was right. I debated on whether I should keep them and give them a try, but after looking up their website and comparing them to the Amazing Grass website, I decided to return them (I called and the Vitamin Shoppe does refund unopened products). My reasoning....Amazing Grass had organizations (USDA, COOP America, Natural Products Association) accrediting/supporting their product. I couldn’t find anything on the other website. I’m not saying one is better than the other because I really don’t know. I had to go with my gut. Also, I’m not a energy bar fan, meaning I haven’t found any that I like, but this is recommended. I’d like to give it a try to see if they are tasty. If they are, I plan to only purchase them for when I travel or am away from home for long periods of time and need a healthy snack. I’m still in search of the energy bars…will provide my review at that time!


7/15 Meals/Workout

Meal 1: bowl of Special K protein plus, hardboiled egg, ½ mug English Breakfast tea
Meal 2: Tri-color chickpea salad with Kashi multi-grain crackers, 2 tbsp of peanut butter
Snack: plum
Meal 3: 4 hard tacos (only lettuce and cheese), glass of skim milk
Snack: glass of Sauvignon Blanc and 2 squares of Lindt Dark Chocolate

Workout:
10 minutes warm-up on Arc Trainer
Quads
1 set of obliques
20 minutes on Arc Trainer (Cardio program, level 6)
Stretch
Week 4/Day 2 onehundredpushups

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

7/14 meals/workout

Meal 1: over-easy egg, 2 slices of whole wheat bread w/butter, cottage cheese, English Breakfast tea
Vitamins: multi-vitamin and fish oil tablet
Meal 2: leftover Mexicali black bean pizza, plum, water, Diet 7-Up
Snack: banana strawberry yogurt (Danon light and fit)
Meal 3: tuna melt with sprouts mixed in, blackberries
Vitamins: calcium, vitamin C, and fish oil tablet
Snack: glass of Sauvignon Blanc and way too much peanut brittle

Workout:
10 minutes warm-up on Elliptical
Back and Biceps
Hanging Leg Raises and Bicycles
20 minutes on Stationary Bike
Stretch

Week 3/Day 1 twohundredsitups

I'm not sure how long or often I'm going to post my meals. Testing it out, seeing how I like broadcasting my habits and not so good habits... Although, the whole point of this is holding myself accountable and being honest with myself! Hmmm...sometimes not an easy task.