Tag: Exercise

Happy tears

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The hospitality just knows no bounds around these parts!

Check out what was waiting for us when we ambled into the kitchen Saturday morning:

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Kristin had arranged an entire tea and coffee display (complete with a “good morning and how-to” note!) to greet us if we woke up before she and Dustin did. I chose a chai tea bag with a bit of skim:

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For breakfast, Kristin whipped out a box of Trader Joe’s banana bread mix. She’s so stocked! We mixed banana chunks into the batter and sprinkled slivered almonds over the top because we’re fancy like that. While the bread was baking, I licked the batter:

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Kristin then proceeded to make us a beautiful breakfast appetizer plate with expertly arranged cinnamon-sprinkled apples:

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And peanut butter!

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Oooh, that bread smelled so good coming out of the oven. There’s something about boxed mixes that is just too delicious and addictive!

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There were gooey pieces and crispy pieces.

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And lots and lots and lots and lots of peanut-butter-covered pieces!

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After breakfast, Kristin, Wife, and I took a lovely two hour stroll through a nearby park, greenway, and neighborhood. We saw the prettiest bungalow houses all with rocking chairs comfortably nestled into their wraparound porches. I kept saying I expected little old ladies to pop out and invite us in for sweet tea. Sadly, neither the old ladies nor the sweet tea made an appearance.

Wife and I returned to our “suite” after the walk to start getting ready for the wedding. Mid-prep, Kristin came knocking at the door with a plate in hand: “It’s going to be a while until you guys eat, so I brought you some snacks.”

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As you can see, Kristin went all out with these “snacks”! The plate included piping hot mushroom empanadas and onion jam ricotta tarts. I think I had 1.5 of each.

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Who thinks Kristin needs to open a bed and breakfast? I do! I’d be first in line for a room.

Also mid-prep, I received an exciting message from Erin Gunn‘s boyfriend Mike: “She said yes!” Ohhhhhhh my goodness!!! Of course, I called Erin immediately and confirmed the engagement news and cried and jumped up and down and flapped my arms around because I was (and am) so happy for her. Congratulations, Erin!

Erin’s engagement news was a good warm-up for Ilin’s wedding, during which I also lost quite a bit of fluid via the ol’ tear ducts. Do you cry at weddings?

I’m off to go to sleep, finally, but I should be back tomorrow with the full wedding recap. In the meantime, go visit Emily at Super Caloric Chalk Dust for a shot at winning her first ever giveaway!

Southern hospitality

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I feel so spoiled!

Kath picked me up at the airport just after 1pm for our afternoon date, and we headed straight to Earth Fare. I was excited to sample the most famous salad bar in the world of food blogging:

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I got a little carried away (to the tune of $14.88, aka two pounds of salad) and filled my bowl to the brim. It involved a huge pile of spinach, mixed greens, and veggies on the bottom and several bites of exciting things on top: chickpea salad, wheatberry salad, marinated mushrooms, black beans, soy chicken salad, tropical tofu salad, tonnnnnnnnnns of feta, and probably way more that I can’t remember.

Clean plate club:

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When we finished our salads, we wandered through the store collecting samples (including a cheese cube, a cracker, a vanilla cream wafer and maybe more?) and salad ingredients for Kath’s party tonight.

From Earth Fare, we headed to Great Harvest, Charlotte hotspot #2, where Matt was hard at work. Here’s the bread display in action:

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I sampled two kinds of scuffin. Perhaps they were lemon poppyseed and chive? Flavor didn’t matter — they were delicious!

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And then Matt hooked us up with some more excitement. We shared (as in, I ate most of) this piece of ambrosia bread:

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(It tasted like an iced cinnamon bun, but better because it was packed with those bits of dried fruit, mmmm.)

And about half of this giant butterscotch cookie loaded with butterscotch chips (Kath had a couple bites, and I saved the last quarter to share with Wife later):

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We were standing outside the bakery when Matt came running out to ask if we’d like to sample some of the pizza the staff had made earlier in the day for themselves just by throwing scraps together. I was not hungry, but I couldn’t resist!

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They were deeeelicious — bursting with sundried tomato flavor and lots of spice. I had some right then and then saved the rest for later in the afternoon until I could polish them off completely (minus one bite for Kath and one for Wife).

After the feast, Kath and I took off for a lovely walk on the greenway. I want a greenway! All of the trees and grasses were vibrantly green and alive, especially against the clear sky — such a change from the dull greyness of New York! In a burst of spontaneity, we stopped by Kate and Nate‘s (who, incidentally, deemed my blog title porn-appropriate last week) house. Prep for Nate’s big SpongeBob birthday shindig was well underway so, after a quick visit, Kath and I ended up taking their adorable dog Gilbert for a walk further down the greenway. Gilbert definitely did not poop on the greenway while we were walking him, so there was no need for us to worry about cleaning up after him around mile 0.5. Ummmmmmmm …

After about an hour and a half of walking and chatting, we made our way back to Kath’s car and headed to her house to relax for a few minutes until Wife’s imminent arrival. Kelsey stopped by to work on a special project for Nate’s party, and I got to blog on Kath’s famous chair 🙂

img_8107And now, I must take a moment here to appreciate Kath appropriately. I sent her a message Thursday asking for suggestions about what I should do during my five hours of downtime in Charlotte before Wife arrived. The next thing I knew, she was offering to pick me up at the airport, take me for lunch, samples, and a walk, and let me relax at her house! On top of that, Kath, Kate, and Nate invited us all to Nate’s birthday party later. It sounded so fun and I would have loved to go, but we had other plans already. Not only was Kath completely generous with her time and hostessing abilities, she was great company, and we passed a lovely afternoon together. Thank you, Kath!

Wife came around to collect me a little after 5, and the southern hospitality just kept flowing. But now I’m tired and it’s late, so I’ll have to recap hospitality part 2 tomorrow!

What geographical personality characteristics have you noticed? That’s a confusing question. Let me try to clarify. I’ve always heard that people from the south are hospitable, and obviously I’ve found that to be true. Same thing with people in Ireland being gabby. Can you add others to the list?

Busier off

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Ack, it’s pretty late for me to be getting around to this! I always expect to have so much extra time on my days off, and the opposite always ends up being true.

Anyway, I had today off since it’s my class day and Hunter is closed for spring break 🙂 I had lots to get done because I’m leaving for the weekend tomorrow — my old college roommate is getting married in North Carolina! I woke up around 8, got my laundry started at the laundromat, and then came back for breakfast:

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That’s right, exactly the same as yesterday: tofu oat bran with prune groatmeal topping! Such a pleasant-sounding name, right?

I topped it with cashew-almond butter and unsweetened coconut again today, but
I decided to go wild and throw on a sprinkle of cinnamon as well.

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Lunch, even though it was my day off from work, was the usual group effort.

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I had a salad made with rescued brown and leaky roommate lettuce and Heather’s leftover lunch lettuce from work yesterday; half of an abandoned zucchini that I found on the conference room table yesterday (I think it was Inginia’s?) sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and a few thawed pieces of seared tuna from the Electrolux event a couple weeks ago; peanut roasted chickpeas; Newman’s dried berry blend; grated homemade parmesan; and the rest of my sundried tomato dressing from last night’s salad.

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On the side, I had one of Myrna and Mildred’s empanadas from Heather’s baby shower and Heather’s leftover guacamole from her lunch yesterday.

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I didn’t know whether the empanada was chicken or cheese until I took a bite.

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Chicken it was! Delicious 🙂

Lunch dessert was another tbsp of peanut roasted chickpeas and the rest of the Newman’s berries:

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After laundry and lunch, I went out on a mission of many errands. I walked down to Brooklyn’s poor excuse for a mall, Atlantic Center, and picked up a new pair of sneakers (in the white/berry/storm color) from DSW on sale for $60. More money than I’m really free to spend, but the health of my knees is worth it!

img_8063I also hit up Target hoping to find a cheap dress for the wedding that suits my new, ahem, “curvier” figure (thanks to the injury-induced reduction in running). No luck, though, so I’m going to have to raid my closet! I did, however, pick up a coffee bean grinder. I don’t like coffee, but my mini-food processor bit the dust after three batches of nut butter, and I thought (rather, I called my mom and she thought) the grinder might be a good and cheap ($15!) interim solution until I can get my hands on a powerful processor. Mom was right, and I made some sunflower seed butter when I got home. Sure, it took three batches (and I had to stop the grinder after every pulse to scrape the sides) to make 1/2 cup’s worth, but I now have delicious sunflower seed butter!

I also stopped into several grocery stores on the way back to try to put a dent in my stockpile of coupons. In addition to heavily discounted produce, I also picked up a free kashi meal, free tempeh, free cereal, and free yogurt 😀 The checkout people kept doing double-takes as they rang up my coupons.

By the time I got home, I had been gone for three hours and 3.5 miles of walking. I had a quick snack of a date with my last tsp of cashew-almond butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

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And then I went out for an inaugural run with the new sneakers! I could definitely feel the difference in my knees. I felt like I was running on clouds, sigh. I made it about 22 minutes until the muscles started giving me grief, so I took a 20-minute walk/run/stretch pain-break. Once things had calmed down, I resumed a solid run for the last 10 minutes. I think I usually run by wildly throwing my legs out in front of me (yeah, I’m sure that’s part of why I’m injured, too) but I noticed today that I felt a lot less pain when I focused on lifting my knees UP instead. I’ll have to make a point of this on future runs. Anyhoo, stats: 55 minutes, 421 calories, 144 average heart rate, 168 max. It was probably around 4 miles total. After the run, I did most of the 20-minute Yoga for Runners — sometimes I just can’t keep my attention on it long enough to finish!

Now I’m off to go finish dyeing my hair, do a little wedding fashion show so I can figure out what to pack, and then start packing! I will hopefully be back soon — I should have a good amount of airport downtime perfectly suited to blogging tomorrow 🙂

Are your days off busier than your days on?

Erin at I Walk In This World is going to be hosting a bake sale/auction next week to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. Go check it out!

Danger zone

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Breakfast this morning was delicious and complex:

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But before I get into the details of this multi-layer marvel, I have to fill you in on my morning at the gym 🙂 I did my Self Challenge strength workout last night before I went to bed so that I could focus on cardio this morning and get to work on time! I did 20 minutes on the Stepmill, 12 minutes on the elliptical, and 12 minutes on the treadmill (plus the jog to the gym and back and some stretching).

This was my first time back on the treadmill since the muscle-straining incident (which occurred outside and not on the treadmill, btw). Usually, 5.5 is a very comfortable treadmill pace for me that falls on the lower end of my treadmill speed range. This morning, 4.2 was all I could handle! Anything faster than that forced me into a too-long painful stride. My range of motion is so limited. I’m not a fan of being injured, and this slow recovery makes me nervous for both the 10k I’m running on May 9 and the half marathon I’m running on May 30. I suppose the flip-side is that the injury is seemingly forcing my body to work unusually hard for cardio and I burned something like 560 calories this morning. But I’d rather be burning fewer calories if it meant I were healed :/

Anyway, back to breakfast:

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I went Bob’s Red Mill crazy on this combo. Before I went to bed last night, I pulled out the crockpot and filled it it with two cups of whey from Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 cup BRM whole oat groats, 1/2 cup BRM triticale berries (similar to wheat berries), 1/2 cup pumpkin muffin crumbs (from the freezer), 1/2 cup chopped Newman’s Own prunes, and a big pile of cinnamon. I cooked the whole thing on low overnight.

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This morning, I cooked 1/4 cup BRM oat bran on the stovetop with 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk and then immersion blended it with 1/4 cup silken tofu. That became my base layer.

I topped the tofu oat bran base with 1/2 cup of the crockpot prune “groatmeal” and topped that with a tbsp of cashew-almond butter and a sprinkle of unsweetened shredded coconut.

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picture-526Exciting, right? It was quite the production! I’m looking forward to doing it again tomorrow, too!

When I got to work this morning, check out what was waiting. Our very own agency Martha Stewart (aka Jessica) was inspired to bake her famous mini-cupcakes by the tray from yesterday’s mini-pumpkin muffins. She just knew it would make the perfect carrying case for her signature goodies.

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I milked these two over the first two hours of the day.

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They were the perfect morning snack!

However, the entire tray of cupcakes spent the rest of the day on the infamous conference room table. Here’s the view from my desk:

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Where is the most dangerous spot to leave treats lying around in your life?

Also, The Professional Vegan did a great review post today of a NYT article about “aspiring vegans” who follow “veganish” lifestyles. This is relevant because the subject of the article, Jeffrey Masson, was interviewed at Angelica Kitchen, a fabulous vegan restaurant in NY where I have eaten!

Cake and cookies

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After the exercise class last night, I was only slightly hungry (and mostly tired) so I put together a little snacky plate with healthyish cheesecake, peanut roasted chickpeas, and prunes and apricots with PB2.

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There’s also a little piece of the caramel-nut-chocolate candy (on the stick) that my step-uncle gave me for Easter yesterday.

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As I mentioned, I took the Open Cardio Gyrokinesis class last night at the Madison Park location of kinespirit, a fancy gyrotonic studio, with the coupon that Melissa from Fitness NYC brought to the blogger brunch last month. Melissa very accurately reviewed and described the class here.

My experience was pretty much identical to Melissa’s (although my instructor was Christina). I was exhausted yesterday after work and almost didn’t go to the class at all, but I’m so glad I did! It was gentle and easy on my body and my poor strained glutes and hamstrings, yet it somehow snuck in a vigorous abs and arms workout I didn’t even realize I was getting. As Melissa explains in her review, gyrotonic seems sort of in the same family as pilates, although it is definitely NOT pilates. I was apprehensive going into the class because I don’t normally frequent this type of out-of-my-budget small private studio, but Christina and the rest of the staff were very welcoming, and I felt comfortable right from the start! Definitely check out Melissa’s review that I mentioned above and go experiment with some gyrotonic if it sounds good!

This morning …

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I’m quite enjoying this almond sunset tea! I probably need to rename it almond sunrise tea.

My breakfast cookie was such a success yesterday that I replicated it exactly for today’s breakfast:

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In case anyone is struggling with breakfast cookie texture, I’ve noticed a few key tricks that seems to help tremendously in solidifying the cookie in the fridge overnight:

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(1) As you mix the “cookie dough” the night before, it should be as close as possible to the consistency of real cookie dough. You should be able to pick up all the dough in your hands, roll it into a ball, and flatten it onto a plate. (For me, this involves adding no more than 1/2 tbsp of liquid, if even.)

(2) The addition of dried fruit works wonders because it helps the oats soak up all the moisture.

(3) Frosting makes everything better.

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I had a boat egg on the side again as well.

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Brandi asked yesterday why I called it a “boat egg.” Does anyone else do this? I thought it was a common thing, but maybe it’s just a weird family thing! My parents always called hard-boiled eggs sliced this way “boat eggs” when I was little. I think they did this for two reasons: (1) they sort of resemble little canoes in looks and in the way they slide around the plate (right?) and (2) it made the eggs more exciting for me to eat, along the same lines as “broccoli trees.”

Do you remember fun food names from your childhood that helped motivate you to eat?