Tag: Exercise

Sprinkles, icing, and parental advice

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As of Wednesday night, I did not feel like the week was moving quickly AT ALL. But as of this morning, I feel like it has flown! How did that happen?

Quick rewind to last night. Dinner was simple but delicious. I had a morningstar asian veggie patty (the last one — so sad!), half of a baked sweet potato dolloped with plain yogurt and sprinkled with cinnamon, and a market sample toastie with sample cheese:

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I was clearly in a frozen treat mood yesterday, so I got some homemade froyo going in the freezer while I was eating dinner. This mix included 1/3 cup healthy cream cheese icing, 1/2 cup pumpkin (for volumizing purposes), 1 tsp peanut butter, and a chopped piece of lindt hazelnut chocolate. Oh, and also a market sample almondine cookie. And light whipped cream. And more sprinkles (because my dad told me that brown foods don’t look pretty or appetizing on the blog).

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And then I had one more piece of hazelnut chocolate because I really wanted it:

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This morning at the gym, I did arms and steps and racked up the following stats: 1 hour and 14 minutes, 435 calories, 126 average heart rate, 170 max.

And breakfast was the same it’s been all week. Doesn’t taste old yet, though! (I don’t think my crockpot oats will ever taste old to me.) One cup of pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats with 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing, unsweetened coconut, crumbled grahams, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin seeds:

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And can’t forget the soymilky black tea on the side:

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I ate strategically to make the cream cheese icing outlast the oats because I had a plan for breakfast part 2! I mixed the rest of the icing with about 2/3 cup of canned pumpkin and the appropriate spices for a bit of pumpkin pie pudding 🙂

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On an unrelated sidenote, my mom left me a comment yesterday and said, among other things: “Wow, are you giving me such great cooking and eating ideas. I love it and you, too! Love and xoxoxoxox, om.” A second later, she left this comment: “I don’t mean the yoga om, obviously. It’s a typo. Mom.” I thought that was a very cute mom moment, and I had to share!

Funny how both of my parents showed up in this post. Have you received any useful/funny parental or family input this week?


With sprinkles on top

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Thursday is my wake-up-to-sunlight day, and I love it! I got up at 6:30 this morning so I could enjoy a sunrise run through the park. My motivation faltered significantly when I got outside and felt how cold it was. All my muscles tightened up, and my legs just did not want to move! But I told myself I could run as slow as I wanted and turn around if I needed to, and I ended up doing a whole lap of the park plus a teeny bit extra. It was so gorgeous out there with everything all snow-covered … but it was kind of lost on me because I am ready to see some green! Stats: 4.1 miles, 45 minutes, 342 calories, average heart rate 144, max 169.

I had planned to do the 20-minute Gentle Hatha #1 yogadownload when I got home, but I just didn’t have it in me! I did a few pigeons, dogs, and child’s poses on my own instead.

Breakfast was another cup of pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats:

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With 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing, coconut, pumpkin seeds, cumbled graham sticks, cinnamon, and ginger:

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And soymilky black tea:

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During class, I snacked on 1.5 black bean-salmon patties dipped in 2 tbsp peanut-butter-pumpkin-roasted-red-pepper-hummus:

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Don’t judge. It was delicious.

I also ate 2 dates and 2 prunes for snack dessert:

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We had advisement after class, so I brought along a full lunch to carry me through, including what I made Tuesday night when I realized how low on produce I was. After rummaging through the depths of my cabinets and freezer, I came up with a can of chickpeas, a box of frozen spinach, and a can of tomato sauce. Seemed like cause for Indian food to me! I quickly threw together this dal with some adjustments (scallions in place of the onions I didn’t have, tomato sauce in place of the tomatoes I didn’t have, cardamom plus every spice in my cabinet in place of the garam masala I didn’t have, sweet potato pieces because I did have them and thought they’d be fun in it) and added in about 3/4 cup cooked brown basmati rice. Here’s today’s one-cup portion:

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With my “pumpkin plus” yogurt:

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After advisement, Emily, Lisa, and I stayed on to touch base for the group presentation we’re giving next week (about infant adoption, yay!). I was thoroughly drained when it was all said and done and needed some Tasti-D stat:

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I got a swirl of dulce de leche and burnt sugar (which, in reality, tasted like fancy names for vanilla and chocolate). But it was still very tasti:

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With sprinkles on top, obviously, because what is ice cream without sprinkles?

I’m finally home and contemplating things like dinner and the Fridayness of tomorrow.

What do YOU put on top?

A long trail of goop

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Happy Wednesday! I got a whole 15 extra minutes of sleep this morning because I had to meet a coworker at 9:30 for a site visit close-ish to my apartment before we went up to the office together. Fifteen minutes made a big difference — so much more sunlight! Gym was arms and steps — stats: 1 hour and 9 minutes, 424 calories, 128 average heart rate, 175 max.

Breakfast was the flavor of the week: pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats:

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With the usual extras of 1/2 cup yogurt, 2 crumbled graham sticks, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, coconut, ginger:

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And soymilky black tea hot chocolate on the side:

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I decided last minute that I wanted hot chocolate instead of tea, so I dumped my soymilky black tea into a saucepan and whisked in 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp sugar in the raw, 1 tsp chunky peanut butter, cinnamon, and cayenne to make my favorite spicy cinnamon pb hot chocolate:

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I also put a squirt of light whipped cream on top, but it melted too fast for me to get a picture! The best part about making cocoa with this way is the treat at the end — a long trail of peanutty chocolate goop at the bottom of the mug:

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Mmmmmmm!

Which bite do you prefer most — the first or the last?

ALERT: Lindsay has an exciting giveaway featuring oats — how relevant, right? — on her blog Love of Oats right now! Hurry to enter before 5pm!

Back to bundled

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I had to resort to layers again this morning to get to the gym. I thought we were past all this nasty weather! I did the 45-minute treadmill run (still love it!). Stats: 1 hour and 4 minutes, 501 calories, average heart rate 145, max 175.

Breakfast was more pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats with 1/2 cup yogurt, unsweetened coconut, crumbled graham sticks, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and ginger:

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With soymilky tea and water:

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Some other things:

– How weird is that West 53rd Street will now be known as U2 Way?

– Vegan fashion expert and occasional T.O.E. guest poster (here and here), The Professional Vegan, has ventured into the kitchen once again. Check out her latest projects!

– Win a chance to make your own granola at Fit for Free!

Can you make the cold go away?

Chocolate-covered breakfast

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But before we get to my real breakfast, pre-breakfast was a small sliced apple with sprinkles of cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom:

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I bagged the apple and snacked on it during the subway ride to meet Kate for our five-mile-run that started at her apartment and then went over the Brooklyn Bridge and back. If you’ve never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, you’re missing out because it’s a beautiful stroll. Running across the bridge, however, is like running up a mountain against hurricane-force gales. Despite the wind’s malicious plans for us, we made it through :-). Stats: 56 minutes, 448 calories, average heart rate 146, max 170.

My post-run breakfast was inspired by the chocolate-covered vegan/katie and the case of jocalat larabars she is giving away (and the chance to earn three extra entries for using one of her recipes ;-)). I combined three of Katie’s breakfast grain procedures in one scrumptious breakfast: banana bread in a bowl, brownie batter oatmeal, and the blended grains technique. I started with a smaller portion of banana oatmeal than Katie calls for in her recipe, so I also blended in 1/2 cup fresh pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup yogurt, a tsp-sized peanut butter ring-around-the-edge, and a sprinkle of unsweetened shredded coconut to sufficiently fill my bowl:
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img_4804I had my chocolate-covered brownie batter banana bread in a bowl blended oatmeal (what a mouthful!) alongside soymilky chocolate caramel enchantment chai (my last bag of it :-() and a glass of water.

The breakfast definitely deserves a big YUMMMMMMM! The CCV’s techniques added delicious flavor complexity and a perfectly creamy texture to the bowl. Thanks for the ideas, Katie!

In addition to the CCV giveaway mentioned above, you should also head over to Just Sweet Enough to get a look at the yummy snacks Nicole has up for grabs in honor of her 50th post! AND, Simply Fabulous is giving away Trek bars!

I’m off to maybe get something done today. Hopefully I can find the muscle strength I need to crack open one of my textbooks!

Do you prefer smooth food or chunky food?