Tag: Exercise

Visions of sugar cookies …

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I have to say again how incredibly cold it was today, and it’s only going to get worse! My internship involves going on lots of home visits, something I love except for the part about having to go outside multiple times each day. Cold like this completely saps all of my energy, and no energy + sitting next to office candy bowl = bad combination! The first thing I did when I got home was make a giant mug (or five) of this:

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I am so excited about this. Are you excited?? Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea is probably the most delicious kind of tea ever made. Just look at these ingredients:

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I have no idea what “natural sugar cookie flavor” is, but it works very well. Drinking this tea right now is even more exciting because, if you did not notice, it is a “Holiday Tea,” meaning it is only available around Christmas. We are well past Christmas, and I have not been able to find it anywhere since mid-December. But my friend Kate stumbled upon a goldmine of Celestial Seasonings Holiday Tea at a health food store here in Brooklyn, and she got me four boxes! I’m planning to make a trip there myself this weekend to see if I can hunt down any more boxes. My goal is to keep sleighing right through to spring!

I addition to my sleigh ride, I made an omelet with the leftover veggies and cheese from the nutrition talk last night. Chopped zucchini, yellow pepper, red pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes:

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Cheese getting ready to dive in with a cute little broccoli bud garnish:

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Omelet with all of the above plus sofrito sauce, coarse sea salt, freshly ground black pepper:

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Bursting with veggies:

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And crispy on top:

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And for dessert, of course, another vitamuffin! Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip VitaTop with peanut butter (and the sleigh ride!):

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Lunch

My lunch was a repeat with a few minor adjustments as a result of my produce luck last night. I had BBQ pork and beans, sofrito rice blend, yogurt (with banana, apple, and strawberries), grapes (from last night!), and some carrots and zucchini (from last night!):

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Breakfast

I was so confused this morning when my alarm went off at 5, and I could tell it was a freezing day. I was dreading going outside to the gym, but I forced myself to do it. And it was COLD. Colder than cold really. But I lived! I did the same workout as Monday, but for some reason had a slightly lower average heart rate (141 vs. 149) and calorie burn (466 vs. 539). I wonder if the cold weather slowed things down? We’ll see what happens tomorrow (how fun that I can really do that with the heart rate monitor!) I kept thinking about the steamy bowl of oats I could have when I got back.

For breakfast, I made an oatmeal starfish:

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As usual, same ingredients but different arrangement: 1/2 cup banana bread crockpot oats, half cup yogurt, sprinkles of nutmeg and sweetened shredded coconut, strawberry, spoonful peanut butter:

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Phew, that was long. Time to go rest my eyes. Night night!

P.S. Oh She Glows is having a scrumptious giveaway contest: a whole box of Honest Foods bars!! Go enter now!

Garnishes make good snacks + Dinsert

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The workshop today was almost worthwhile. Except I kept thinking of 10,000 other things I could have been doing instead. The highlight was when I noticed the dregs of a breakfast buffet (muffins, donuts, bagels, danishes) from an earlier session on a table in the back. I went closer, and everything looked like insta-diabetes except for … the garnish! While the lecture went on in front, I sneakily grabbed an empty coffee cup:

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And set to filling it with every last strawberry and orange slice I could find:

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I saved this fruit for after lunch, and it helped me stretch out my snacks perfectly so that I stayed fueled through meeting Kate and the running club for 3.5 miles in the park (33 minutes, 320 cals, 167 ave hr — yayyy, HRM!) and the 45 minute commute home to dinner (or, more accurately, dinsert). Central Park, though freezing, was gorgeous tonight — we felt like we were running through a Christmas card with the snowy hills, ice skaters, and horse-drawn carriages … you know the deal.

When I finally got home, I was sleepy and needed food stat, so I whipped up another dinsert (aka dinner-dessert or dessert-for-dinner). I had a teacup of cantaloupe with nutmeg and apple with cinnamon:

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And a toasty Chocolate Fig VitaTop slathered in a heaping T of melty pb:

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Yum, that pb is literally cascading over the sides! And here’s a cute little fig peeking through:

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And right now, my body is saying, “Dear Sarah, Thank you so much for making me burn 839 (!!!!!!) calories today so that I could enjoy peanut butter for breakfast AND dinner. Now, put me to bed!”

P.S. I’m not saying that I’m only allowed to eat peanut butter when I burn 839 calories … just that 839 seems an impressive number and I wanted to brag ;-). Thank goodness tomorrow is a rest day. No wasting away happening up in here!

P.P.S. Make sure to go visit Jess at Model Behavior because she is giving away some delicious-looking chewy fruity vitamin-candies. That means for free! Hurry!!!

Shaking things up

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Today’s schedule is little wonky — I’m skipping my internship to attend a mandatory Diversity, Power, & Privilege Workshop (funnnnnnnnn) at Hunter from 10:45-5 (what is possibly going to take that long???). But it does mean that I got to sleep in for 90 extra minutes this morning!

Breakfast

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Ever since my perfect breakfast yesterday, I’ve been fantasizing about eating it again! After my Monday morning workout — 5 mins jog to gym, 15 mins arms with free weights on aerobics step, 30 mins StairMaster with gossip, 10 mins stretching/abs, 5 mins run home (stats from new HRM: time 1.06, cal 539, ave HR 149, highest HR 176) — I got the oatmeal heating in the oven while I showered. Half cup yogurt, half cup banana bread crockpot oats (reheated for 10 mins at 400), sprinkle sweetened shredded coconut, chopped strawberry, nutmeg, spoonful pb:

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So nice to have daylight during breakfast on a Monday morning!

Most Likely Lunch

Here are the snacks and lunch I packed, but if I end up encountering free food up there (doubtful), you know I’ll be taking advantage:

sofrito rice mix, classy pork & beans, orange, yogurt/fruit, carrot sticks, mini muffins

sofrito rice mix, classy pork & beans, orange, yogurt/fruit, carrot sticks, mini muffins

In case you’ve forgotten from yesterday, here’s how it looks inside the tupperwares:

pork & beans

pork & beans

Dominican rice, barley, cabbage, and sofrito sauce

Dominican rice, barley, cabbage, and sofrito sauce

The yogurt mixture today is 1/2 cup yogurt, frozen banana pieces, 1/2 small apple, 1/2 big strawberry, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger:

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It all looks mouth-watering, so I hope I get to eat it!

Freshly baked

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Mmmmmm, can you guess what I had for breakfast?

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But first, the gym! Even though we only got about an inch of snow (as opposed to the eight inches predicted), the sidewalks still did not look all that inviting for my planned five miles, and I decided to head to the gym instead. Usually I jog there, but I realized that was not going to happen as soon as I set foot outside. The ground was covered completely with a thin, smooth, and invisible layer of treacherous ice. I pretty much had to sneaker-ski my way there at a snail’s pace. Brrrrrrr … I was dressed to run outside for five minutes — not to tiptoe gingerly for 15! My care paid off, though, since I only fell once. Thank goodness I have some padding; if I didn’t, my tailbone would be shattered right now.

You already know about my trouble with treadmill boredom, but indoor running was my only option today (and I had promised Erin Gunn I would do a harder run this weekend in solidarity for our half marathon training) so I had to work around it. This time, however, I used two excellent tools that helped me out tremendously: the 45-minute treadmill run that Tina posted and my new Polar F6 heart rate monitor. I was skeptical about the workout because, ummm, 45 minutes on the treadmill????? But I am now officially a fan. It was H-A-R-D, but I certainly was not bored. And it was a perfect vehicle for test-driving my HRM. And now I have official stats from the workout!

Exercise time: 47:11

Calories: 472

Heart rate: 167 (average); 191 (highest)

I spent about 10 minutes on stretching and abs and then carefully picked my way back home for my banana bread oatmeal! Half cup banana bread crockpot oats, half cup freshly made yogurt, a sprinkle of sweetened shredded coconut, more nutmeg, and half a Tbsp natural peanut butter:

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Mmmmm, how perfect does that look?

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I’ve had a nice, relaxing morning of reading, and now I have to rush to rinse the dye from my hair! Ahhhh, the pitfalls of not being a completely natural redhead …

(Still) running (on empty)

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Because outdoor exercise in freeeeezing weather at the end of the day is just the most super fun thing in the world to do (and because we are now officially training for the 5/30/09 Brooklyn Half Marathon), Kate and I scrounged up the will to meet for another Nike training run through Central Park. We opted for the 3 mile “short” run tonight, but it was seriously like pulling teeth. Sometimes I can run 5.5-6 miles like it’s nothing, and other times, a dinky little 3 miles just does me in (perhaps knowing that I had no post-run buffet waiting for me at the end played a part, too). We did get an almost-exciting surprise when we finished, though: mini Luna bars! Here we are displaying our bounty (in all our sweaty glory):

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I actually managed to pilfer six of these minis, all in Caramel Nut Brownie, my favorite. I don’t eat Luna bars often because (1) they taste a little chemically and (2) they actually happen to be full of chemicals and ingredients removed from their natural settings (surprise, surprise). But they’ll do as a snack in a pinch, and I certainly have plenty of pinches!

For dinner, I was really getting down to the dregs of the fridge. I scrambled a lone egg I found in there with 1/2 tsp canola oil and 1/4 cup of my okra/chicken mixture from lunch today — all that was left after I packed tomorrow’s lunch. I added more sofrito and grated homemade cheddar cheese to spice it up.

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On the side, I had an oven-toasted peanut butter chip chocolate VitaTop with frozen banana (just like banana ice cream!) and real cookie crumbs I secured via my office conference room connection:

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If you look closely, you can see the melty pb chips peeking out from under the banana:

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I had a tall tall mug of jasmine green tea on the side to warm my poor hands — my fingers were all white and numb from the freezing run, and they didn’t regain proper circulation until I got in the shower two hours later!

Sneaky Snacks

The pile of holiday goodies in the office has dwindled, but it is certainly putting up quite a fight. Today, my coworker Jessica brought in a box of dark chocolate truffles that she received from a “secret admirer,” and she very generously shared one with me (a.k.a. reminded me several times that she had a box of dark chocolates on her desk until I caved):

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After the truffles, Jessica broke out a sample of some odd new Ice Breakers liquid breath freshener. She offered me one of the teeeeeeeny balls and helped arrange this photo shoot:

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Sadly, due to the ball’s lack of heft, I accidentally breathed it into the back of my throat and nearly cut off my oxygen supply. I never even got to experience the liquid part of the “liquid ice” (tear).

OK, that’s all for today. Tomorrow is Friday, yayyyy!!