Tag: Exercise

Food, doldrums, and a tale

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Dinner last night was quick and easy because I was rushing to finish up that assignment. I had two more stuffed collard greens leaves:

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And two Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Black Bean-Salmon Patties with a thick layer of cinnamon-cayenne peanut butter between them:

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I see those weird looks you’re giving me, but come on, you know you want to try it!

Halfway through I remembered about the radishes and lettuce in the fridge I should be using, so they got inserted into the middle. Less pretty but more nutritious:

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Dessert was about 1/3 cup of my tropical fruit salad (look at that juice!) with a dollop of part-skim ricotta mixed with lemon curd and a sprinkling of granola/trail mix/cocoa java almonds:

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And dessert dessert — the One Lucky Duck blonde macaroon sample from Sunday’s brunch:

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This was delicious and made me think about how I really need to get into the macaroon-making business.

This morning, I slept in until 6 and then did the 20-minute Morning Flow #1 yogadownload. On top of feeling achy, I’ve been feeling unmotivated about the gym and just stretched too thin in general all week. The yoga was a good way to combine extra sleep with more gentle exercise … but I also keep finding myself trying to make deals in my head, i.e. you didn’t do cardio this morning, so no cake today if some shows up. I need to stop that!

I’m going to try to find some time this weekend to revamp the exercise routine because I think the biggest problem is that I’m getting bored.

And, of course, spinach oats yet again for breakfast! (Click here for the process.)

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Topped with strawberries, homemade almond-cashew butter, granola/trail mix, and unsweetened coconut:

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And I’ll leave you this morning with a mini Tale of Expansion from my good friend Wife, who you met in a couple photos here. Wife is in the process of getting her PhD (!!!!!) in Athens, GA, but she recently spent spring break in Tucson with her boyfriend. Here is what she had to say about that:

Ted and I went for high tea at the Tohono Chul Tea Room in Tucson over spring break. Not nearly as official and elaborate as the three tier Harrod’s affair when we were in London, but as you can see the scones still make me go crrrrraaaaaazzzzy.

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What makes YOU go crrrrraaaaaazzzzy?

I’m addicted …

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… to spinach oats! How weird is that?

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And the gym actually WAS open this morning! I didn’t except any probs today, though, since they’re actually open 24 hours during the week, starting Monday at 5am. Someone’s alarm must have forgotten to go off yesterday. It happens. Anyhow, today I tried to listen to my old-lady achy joints and did 30 minutes on the elliptical followed by a thorough stretching session (plus the jog there and back). Stats: 1 hour and 1 minute, 338 calories, 122 average heart rate, 171 max.

I prepared today’s oats the same way I had them yesterday, except that I mixed the granola sprinkling with a bit of trail mix:

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And my standard soymilky tea in front of the pretty window photo:

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I’m off to do some serious work! Are you working or pretending to work right now?

By the way, there are like a million amazing giveaways (thanks to An Apple a Day for putting them all in one convenient post for me to steal!) going on right now:

1. Too much fun stuff to mention at Missy Maintains.

2. Almonds up the Wazoo at Melissa’s Journey.

3. Ahhhh, a brand-new Vita-Mix (!!!!!!!!!) at Jumbo Empanadas.

4. Barney Butter at The Hungry Yogini.

5. A variety-filled goodie bag at meloncauliflower.

6. And another Quaker spa prize pack at Run, Eat, Repeat.

Good luck!!

Just call me Popeye

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Breakfast this morning was another new and exciting (to me!) creation:

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I got up at 5 to go to the gym, got all my layers on, jogged there in the 30 degree weather … and found six other people waiting outside the locked and gated entrance! My gym is supposed to open at 5am on Mondays, and it was definitely 5:20 by this point, grrrrr. I gave it a few minutes, but every moment counts at that time of day, so I eventually gave up and jogged my creaky crunchy knees back home. It probably worked out better anyway since it gave me time to do the beginning Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownload.com — my knees needed the rest!

So back to breakfast, yet another work of art inspired by Heather and her spinach oats!

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If you recall, I brought home a giant packed bag of fresh spinach leaves last week when we had extra in the food pantry at work. Despite diligently incorprating the spinach into salads all weekend, I barely made a dent! So last night, I made 1/2 cup stovetop oats custard-style and also added about four cups of spinach, half of a giant grated carrot, and a chopped apple. When everything was wilted and cooked, I immersion-blended my heart out. With the heat off post-blending, I mixed in another 1/2 cup oats (for texture), 1/2 giant mashed banana, 1/2 giant chunked banana, vanilla, cinnamon, 2 tbsp lemon curd, and 2 tbsp unsweetened coconut. The whole thing made just under 4 cups of oatmeal.

This morning, I heated 3/4 cup of the mix, set it on a bed of lemon yogurt (yogurt + more lemon curd + cinnamon), and topped it with strawberries, vanilla-almond granola, more coconut, and a big ol’ spoonful of homemade almond-cashew butter:

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And you know the soymilky black tea was not far behind:

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Thanks for yet another delicious breakfast idea, Heather!

I’ll be back much much later tonight because I’ve got class after work. Can I just say how much I love these endless Mondays??

Where do you go when you leave work at the end of the day?

Accidental 10

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Let me just preface this by saying, I am not the kind of girl who runs 10 miles by accident. I am more likely to accidentally eat something like this:

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In second grade, it took me a full 3 seconds longer than the rest of the class to run the 50-yard dash, and my fear of running was born. However, something has changed in the past year, and not only do I find myself training for a half marathon, but I also woke up this morning with the urge to run.

I’ll just do 5 miles, I thought to myself. But then I made it over the Brooklyn Bridge and figured I might as well go back over to the other side and run to the next subway stop instead of taking the train back from the city. By the time I got to the next stop, I was hungry and really had to go to the bathroom and decided it would be quicker to run home than to deal with the slow Sunday subway schedule. I thought I’d done 8 or maybe 9 miles … but I gmapped it and found 10.5!! How did this happen?? Craaaaaaaaazy. Anyway, stats: 1 hour and 46 minutes, 876 calories, average heart rate 151, max 173.

Obviously, I spent most of the run dreaming about this:

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A Fitnessista breakfast cookie made with:

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 large mashed banana
  • 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup super-thick homemade Greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter

I was feeling feisty after my surprise run, so I made “frosting” with my last PB2 sample packet and 1.5 tbsp yogurt and smothered the cookie with it. I also couldn’t help adding a chopped square of Godiva dark chocolate and one mammoth strawberry‘s worth of slices.

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I’m just about to head out to the blogger brunch, and I will be ready to eat for sure! As even more proof that I’m crazy, I didn’t want to show up empty-handed, so I spent all of Thursday afternoon baking a million batches of teeny Earl Grey Biscotti Bites (but with jasmine tea in place of earl grey):

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In reality, I multiplied the recipe by six and not by a million, but that certainly was enough to keep me busy! Each pack only has four little bites (and the 5 non-blue packages have wheat-free and vegan versions — oat flour instead of whole wheat and all canola instead of canola/butter combo — because I imagine there will be a few vegans in the bunch), but something is better than nothing!

Hope you’re having a great Sunday!

I know you all accidentally grocery shop, but do you accidentally exercise, too?

Changes

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Breakfast was wild and different today.

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But first I went to the gym for 30 minutes on the stepmill (total gym stats: 52 minutes, 358 cal, 136 ave hr, 171 max) and then came home to do the Yoga for Runners #1 20-minute download because I’ve been feeling so old and creaky lately.

And then came the wild and different breakfast with 1/2 cup lemon curd yogurt topped with chopped mango, strawberries, and cinnamon:

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And the best part: 1/3 toasted blueberry bagel with a spread composed of about 2 tbsp plain yogurt, 1 tsp goat cheese, and 1 tsp lemon curd. I topped it with more sliced strawberries and cinnamon:

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Mmmm, it was so good! Need to do more with this combo …

And, because I can’t start the day without oats in some form, the last balsamic-strawberry oatie with a tsp of homemade almond-cashew butter:

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This breakfast was definitely less whole-grainy that my typical bowl of oats, but I feel completely satisifed now. We’ll see how I am in a couple of hours!

As much as I’m annoyed by the snow right now, it is not the first time that spring has started with nasty winter weather. There’s nowhere to go but up! Is it springy where you are?