Feats and Eats 1/29

I had a really good week this last week.  I feel like I focused at work and at home; I was able to get most of my catching up at work done and I had some really good workouts.  

My workout on Tuesday was difficult- Rachel had me doing some stuff I hadn't done in awhile and I felt humbled.  I think I was starting to get a little cocky...  Nothing that 30 second planks and bike crunches won't fix!

Thursday's workout was fun- Scott joined me after I did a run around the block.  I made up a little circuit of weights and ab exercises for us to do.  It was nice to have a partner and I think he had a good time.  He increased the number of reps so we didn't have to change the weights on the barbell and he used a higher weight for the dumbbells.  It really made the workout fly by!

Saturday's workout was the best!  My lady friends got together for yoga and brunch.  Rachel was our instructor and we were all crowded in the big front room at our hostess' house.  It was really relaxing but of course she pushed us and I actually worked up a pretty decent sweat for yoga.  The most exciting part was that I was able to hold Crow Pose for 5 seconds with absolutely no shaking.  It was totally rad.

                                                                                                      photo credit

Eats were ok.  I met up with some old school buddies on Wednesday and I had to fight my mind against a third drink.  Alcohol is definitely one of my triggers- once I get going and I'm having a good time chatting it's really difficult for me to put a cap on it.  And then I get snacky...  But I stuck to my two beers and we split several apps so I didn't feel overly full.

This week will be a full one.  I'm going to my last building to play catch up tomorrow and the rest of the week will be packed with finishing touches and cooking for my friend's co-ed wedding shower I'm co-hosting on Saturday.  I'm also getting started on one of my 2012 goals on Thursday.  Austin Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics kicks off their meetings on Thursday and one of my goals was to be more active this year.  

Monday:

     B: yogurt/fruit/nut bowl

     S: apple

     L: eat at work- I have no idea what we are having!  Probably pork again...

     D: mushroom and asparagus fettuccini (didn't get to this last week)

     W: workout with Rachel

Tuesday:

     AMW: run block

     B: egg white with spinach and swiss on english muffin

     S: pear

     L: big salad with hard boiled egg and pecans

     D: lemon pepper salmon, roasted cauliflower and snap peas

     W: kickboxing/abs, barbell routine

Wednesday:

     AMW: run block

     B: yogurt/fruit/nut bowl

     S: pecans/cheese

     L: big salad with a leftover salmon on top

     D: veggie fried rice from Naturally Ella (another one I didn't get to!)

     W: kickboxing and barbells

Thursday:

     AMW: barbells/abs

     B: apple cinnamon oatmeal

     S: apple

     L: salad and leftover pasta

     D: AuAND meeting

     W: rest (unless I take the day off from work- then I'll run the block)

Friday:

     AMW: run block

     B: yogurt/fruit/nut bowl

     S: apple

     L: out to lunch

     D: leftovers

     W: yoga sequence, abs, weights and barbells- get it in before the weekend!

Saturday:  

     B: cereal or smoothie

     S: trail mix

     L: BBQ @ shower

     D: probably keep it light after the shower

     W: probably take a rest day!

~k

Intro and Feats and Eats 1/1

Is it too cliche to start a blog on the first day of a new year?  Probably.  We'll see if this makes it past February...  It seems like a good way to organize my plans for being the healthiest I can be though.  

My word for 2012 is "participation".  I am a planner and a goal setter.  I don't really call my goals resolutions because for some reason they seem like different things.  Most of my goals revolve around my health- eat nutritiously, workout four times a week etc.  One of my goals is to continue to plan my meals weekly.  I've been planning my meals on for about a year now and have been able to stick to that plan for the most part.  I started working out with my friend who is also a personal trainer a few months ago.  As a dietitian, I know that those who have the most success with weight loss keep track of their foods in a journal.  This has proven challenging for me for some reason.  I have an app on my phone, I've kept a little notebook, but for some reason I have always found myself behind in journaling.

My hope is that by using this forum I can have a place to have my plans all together for my meals and my workouts.  I'm not a writer- at least not a creative one.  I spend all day writing technical paragraphs so I may have lost my flair for making things sound catchy.  I also have no idea how to put a photo in a blog post and I'll be figuring this all out as I go.  I don't know if anyone will really read this.  Maybe my boyfriend since he made me tell him what I was doing and wants to make sure I don't write bad things about him...

So if you happen to come across this and have ideas on how I should make it better than let me know.

Ok so onto the planning part.  Of course it wouldn't be real life if some sort of wrench didn't throw itself into my nice, neat meal plan.  Seriously two hours after I wrote out my plan I received a phone call from my boss asking me to come up to Dallas to iron out a mess at a sister building.  Which is an honor and I'm glad she trusts me enough and thinks highly of my work to call me into battle.  On the other hand, I didn't plan on the first week of the new year causing me to discard my meal plan, have to rearrange my workouts and getting further behind at work.  What a good opportunity to practice flexibility!

Monday:

     B: banana nut muffin, milk, apple

     S: mixed nuts

     L: roast beef, rosemary potatoes, braised red cabbage, side salad

     D: creole tilapia, wild rice, sauteed zucchini

     W: meet up with Rachel for some major butt-kicking.  I will not die.

Tuesday:

     B: banana nut muffin, milk, apple

     S: pretzels

     L: big salad with tuna

     D: Buddha bowl (rice, greens, lentils, sweet potato and tamari dressing)

     W: weights and run around the block

Wednesday:

     B: yogurt, blackberries, toast, milk

     S: mixed nuts

     L: unknown!  

     W: abs sequence in hotel

I'll be in Dallas around this time but my boss is notorious for skipping lunch.  I, on the other hand, am not so I'll probably pack a salad or leftovers for lunch on Wednesday.  The rest of my meals will be unknown but my goal is to have a salad for either lunch or dinner and to have a balanced plate for the other meal.  

Thursday:

     W: hotel fitness room workout yay!  Usually my boss picks a nice hotel so I should have access to a small gym.  I don't have a gym membership or fancy workout equipment at home so I'll probably use this opportunity to use the elliptical or bike.  Worst-case scenario I can do a mini bootcamp in my hotel room.

Friday:

     D: portabella and spinach bowties, salad

     W: Hike and bike trail or weights/run around block at home

Saturday:  I usually don't plan out the weekends but I figured that with being gone for most of the week and eating out a bunch I won't feel like going out more.  We'll see...

     B: eggs of some sort, toast, fruit

     L: sandwich at mom's

     D: teriyaki pineapple tofu, rice, asparagus

     W: Rachel butt-kicking time!

I think this is actually a pretty good plan.  Hopefully my work scenario doesn't have me working horrible hours this week so that I'm too pooped to workout but I think I did a pretty good job of making it possible.  

~k

Feats and Eats 1/22

Woo-to-the-hoo the three weeks of insanity are over!  This last week was definitely the hardest of the three.  Work was difficult again and living in a hotel and on dining out is something I'm glad is not part of my regular routine.  The only workouts I completed were Monday and Friday with Rachel.  I had zero motivation to workout at the hotel.  I couldn't even bring myself to do crunches or some sort of routine in my room.  I was exhausted and went to bed at 8:30 each night.  Seriously.  I was waking up at 4:45.  That's just too freakin' early...  I did go out on a little run/walk on Saturday- missed that bike ride again!  

Eats were ok.  I definitely splurged and stress ate.  I recognized it and then proceded full force into a mountain of mashed potatoes.  They were delicious!

So.  This coming week is my week to shine- I am pretty caught up at work, nothing out of the ordinary anyways.  On Friday I spent some time talking over my week with Rachel and identified some things I should do different.  It's weird to have someone else giving me diet advice- I should be able to figure that out on my own/put it into action but... I haven't been using my knowledge to it's full potential.  That disappoints me.  That's why I'm calling this coming week "no excuses week".  I have my meals planned out, my workouts in order and nothing really to get in my way except myself.  My flonase has kicked my allergies into place, work should be fine, my groceries are in the fridge.  

My breakfasts and snacks are going to be the same through the week.  I was looking at this meal plan on Woman's Health or something I found on Pinterest and they have all these different meals for each day.  If you bought all the different things they say, you would have a million kinds of bread/muffin/tortilla etc.  I just really like to eat the same thing for breakfast everyday and then just switch it up weekly.

Monday:

     AMW: run block

     B: egg white with spinach/mushroom and swiss on english muffin

     S: pear

     L: salad with lentil soup

     D: soy glazed cod with zucchini and yellow squash and wild rice

     W: workout with Rachel

Tuesday:

     AMW: run block

     B: egg white with spinach/mushroom and swiss on english muffin

     S: pear

     L: big salad with hard boiled egg and pecans

     D: turkey burgers (I got these frozen in the mail from a groupon and they came with dry ice- fun!)

     W: kickboxing/abs, barbell routine

Wednesday:

     AMW: run block

     B: egg white with spinach/mushroom and swiss on english muffin

     S: pear

     L: big salad with a leftover turkey burger on top

     D: mushroom and asparagus fettuccini (just realized I forgot to get fettuccini!)

     W: kickboxing and barbells

Thursday:

     AMW: barbells/abs

     B: B: egg white with spinach/mushroom and swiss on english muffin

     S: pear

     L: salad and leftover pasta

     D: veggie fried rice from Naturally Ella

     W: run block twice

Friday:

     AMW: run block

     B: egg white with spinach/mushroom and swiss on english muffin

     S: pear

     L: out to lunch

     D: probably go out

     W: workout with Rachel at 5pm

Saturday:  

     B: cereal or smoothie

     L: leftovers

     D: getting together at a friend's to work on wedding shower stuff- probably will order in so I'll bring a salad to have on the side.

     W: Bike ride!  I didn't get this in last week so I really would like to try to make this happen. (now times 2!)

Feats and Eats 1/15

In my next life, remind me not to live in an area rampant with cedar...  geez.  I think I had one decent night of sleep this week and my allergies definitely affected my workouts.  That being said, I had a really good workout with Rach this week.  We ran around the block for a warm up and I was able to be the driving force behind our conversation.  The first time Rachel made me run around the block (emphasis on the made) I had to stop 4 times, huffed and puffed the whole time and then cried when we got back to the driveway.  Seriously.  I call that progress!

My eats last week were delicious!  I have never purchased fresh pomegranate before and it was really interesting.  I found a tutorial on opening a pomegranate that made the process seem fairly easy and it was, but I still got my (of course) white shirt stained.  Oh well, that's what bleach pen is for.  Scott and I made pineapple teriyaki tofu that was really good too.  The stuffed portabellos didn't turn out the way I wanted them to.  I stuffed them with herb goat cheese, roasted red pepper and pecans.  They were ok but not great.  I continue my quest for fantastic stuffed portabellos...

I'm headed back to the Northern part of this fair state this week, Tuesday through Thursday.  I have my snacks packed, my workouts planned and I'm ready to go!  Hopefully this is the last time I have to go up there.  This week was definitely stressful trying to get caught up and I'm still behind at a few of my buildings but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here's my plan for this week:

Monday:

     B: apple cinnamon oatmeal

     S: mixed nuts

     L: salad with pork roast, green beans and tricolor pasta (we have too much pork on the menu this cycle!  I'm getting sick of it!)

     D: vegetarian chicken and dumplings

     W: workout with Rachel

Tuesday:

     B: cinnamon apple yogurt bowl (I have a ton of apples to use up)

     S: pretzels

     L: TBD

     D: TBD

     W: in room workout- I'll probably find one of those routines on Pinterest or something

Wednesday:

     B: hotel- they have really good oatmeal and hard boiled eggs so I'll put something together there

     S: mixed nuts

     L: TBD

     D: TBD

     W: workout at hotel gym (last time I did elliptical or treadmill and some free weights)

Thursday:

     B: hotel breakfast

     S: pretzels

     L: TBD

     D: Scott's pizza and salad- he has a semi-limited repertoire but his pizza rocks! 

     W: workout at hotel gym

Friday:

     B: apple cinnamon oatmeal

     S: mixed nuts

     L: salad with leftover pizza

     D: maybe out?

     W: workout with Rachel at 5pm

Saturday:  

     D: Chinese New Year Party at Spencer and Leanora's- I think we'll eat before we go though.

     W: Bike ride!  I didn't get this in last week so I really would like to try to make this happen.

~k

Feats and Eats 1/7

I was able to stick to my plan from last week for the most part.  Monday when I met up with Rachel she suggested that I try to work out in the mornings so I'll be sure to get it in.  While I hate working out in the mornings because it is cold and dark outside, I know she is right so I try to follow her advice.  It worked!  And more so, because there was no way I was working out at the end of the day after those days in Dallas!  

I was able to eat pretty well while on my work trip.  I focused on getting salads or veggie-based meals and went easy on the booze.  I was drinking a lot of coffee (I usually don't) and someone brought in a bag of Hershey's minis that was bigger than my head.  I definitely had my share of Mr Goodbars!

Friday I started to not feel so well- my allergies were kicking in and are still going full-force, so I haven't worked out for the last two days.  I'll be back at it tomorrow morning though!  

Here's my plan for this week:

Monday:

     B: yogurt with blackberries, pomegranate and pecans

     S: mixed nuts

     L: salad with tuna and pecans

     D: teriyaki pineapple tofu

     W: morning weights/abs sequence w/ kickboxing  

Tuesday:

     B: homemade cinnamon apple oatmeal

     S: pretzels

     L: side salad and whatever we are having at work

     D: bean and cheese baked flautas

     W: weights and run around the block

Wednesday:

     B: yogurt with blackberries, pomegranate and pecans

     S: mixed nuts

     L: taco salad

     D: leftover pasta bake, salad

     W: workout with Rachel

Thursday:

     B: homemade cinnamon apple oatmeal

     S: pretzels

     L: side salad and whatever we are having at work

     D: stuffed portobellos, mixed greens and herb potatoes

     W: weights and run around block

Friday:

     B: yogurt with blackberries, pomegranate and pecans

     S: mixed nuts

     L: salad with hard boiled egg

     D: out!

     W: rest

Saturday:  

     D: pot luck at Loren's house.  I'm taking a Lemon Buttermilk Pie that I got at work from someone's kid for band camp.  I'll probably have a salad before we leave the house so I won't just stand and eat a bunch of junk.  

     W: Bike ride

~k