Tag: Exercise

Bits ‘n’ pieces

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I’ve got to say that I’m feeling the lack of exercise this week. The regular cheery Sarah keeps disappearing! Maybe there really is something to that whole endorphins thing 😛

I got up at 7:30 this morning (because Thursday is my leisurely class day) and worked for two straight hours on some work homework that was supposed to be done yesterday, ack! At 9:30, I realized I had to leave for class in 30 minutes, so I heated breakfast and got ready fast fast fast.

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Breakfast today was the same protein porridge mix I had on Monday, with apples and bananas mixed in, yogurt on the side, and PB2 poured over the top:

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Mmmmm:

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Since I ate that around 10, moments before I walked out the door, I didn’t bother bringing a full lunch to class — just a couple snackies to get me through.

Chopped apple and spices on the bottom with lemon curd + healthy cream cheese icing and golean crunch on the top:

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And a chocolate chip Z-bar:

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I also finished a sleeve of my Newman’s Ginger Mints when I was bored during class. They set my mouth on fire, but I liked it!

On my way home from the subway station, I stopped into Ladybird for a sample of carrot muffin:

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(It was so sunny out!)

Lunch main course was an entire plate full of the fancy apps from last night’s re-enactment:

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(That’s a lot of tuna I think. I don’t mess around.)

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There’s still a ton of tuna left, so I bit the bullet and put the whole container in the freezer. It’s half raw anyway, so I figure it will freeze fine, and I can just cook it all the way through when I’m ready to use it again.

I had way more work homework to do, and I comforted myself about that by finishing the bag of white cheddar soy crisps:

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With salsa:

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And then some Newman’s Own Organics dried berries, apricots, and prunes:

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Once again, who knew Newman’s made dried fruit?? I thought it was all salad dressings and Ginger-Os!

I also had half a chocolate rugelach and a piece of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from the freezer cookie bag:

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Two more hours later, I had finally gotten all my work done. I struck out to do some errands. Obviously, I stopped into Union Market while out to have sample gouda and cheddar cheese cubes and these sample pieces of pecan pie and fudge pie:

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When I got home, I prepped food for tomorrow, which meant more bites of protein porridge, yogurt, cream cheese icing, fruit, baked beans, etc.

Finally, I was able to settle down for a(nother) nice little desserty treat:

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A scoop of healthy cream cheese icing “ice cream,” a scoop of raw chocolate mousse “ice cream,” hot apple topping, a sprinkling of pb2 powder, and graham cracker crumbs.

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Mmmmm. I’m so sleepy. I hope I can go to bed soon!

Does your mood change when you’re not working out?

FYI, Becca’s giving away some SERIOUS goodies from the CIA!!! (Intrigued? Go check it out!)

The heat is on

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Wow, sleeping until 6 is such a luxury! I hope I don’t get too used to it 😛

Heat story #1: I woke up and sat on a heating pad for 10 minutes. Then, I tied the heating pad to the top of my right thigh with a belt and dove into Gentle Hatha Yoga #1. I’m still feeling the pain, but it’s definitely getting better!

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Breakfast this morning was a second incarnation of protein porridge. I was craving a more “old-fashioned” flavor combo this time, so last night I mixed 1 cup of the porridge with 1 tbsp molasses, 2 tbsp raisins, cinnamon, and a crushed clove.

Heat story #2: This morning, the “oats” (just kidding, since there are no oats in here!) went in the oven (covered) for 30 minutes at 375.

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Heat story #3: While the porridge was in the oven, I tried to straighten my hair with the iron to address some of the style damage Supercuts did yesterday during the balding session. Since there was not much for the iron to grasp, this heat story was not as successful as the previous two.

Heat story #4: My apartment felt really warm, and I realized the heat was up to 70! I turned it off.

So back to the food. I layered the heated porridge over 1/2 cup Greek yogurt + part-skim ricotta blend and topped it with vanilla-almond granola, crumbled graham sticks, unsweetened coconut, and an extra little circle of raisins:

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Are you hot or cold?

Remember to enter my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway!

And check out this week’s BSI hosted by Ruth at Plentiful Plants. She’s doing avocado!!!!

A wrench …

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… has been thrown into my plans.

But just so that you don’t get too bored too fast by too many words, here’s another mini Tale of Expansion from my coworker Nitza, who had the honor of experiencing an authentic homemade Ethiopian feast at a friend’s home a couple weeks ago.

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OK, it’s not so much a tale as a photograph, but I wanted to share because Nitza has been showing me this photo for a week, and it has made me drool every time. Ethiopian food is such an adventure.

So, back to the wrench. Kate and I did our 10 miles on pretty much the same route I did last weekend, through Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and back. Stats: 1 hour and 49 minutes, 916 calories, average heart rate 152, max 173.

Now the bad news. I have had some slight inner thigh muscular discomfort for a couple of weeks. I figured it was probably some minor tug or tension or something due to the increase in running, and I’ve been focusing more on stretching and yoga this past week to make sure that nothing gets too out of whack. I started the run really slowly and gently today to give my body time to warm up, and it worked. Discomfort seemed a thing of the past by mile 3.

In mile 7, however, the muscle pain flared up again! I kept going because it was manageable, I wasn’t feeling fatigued, and I had a lot of things on my to-do list that I wanted to get home for! This may have been a bad idea. When I got home, I immediately did the 20-minute Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownload.com because I felt in serious need of stretching and injury-prevention. After yoga and a shower, I was finding walking through the apartment to be an abnormally painful and arduous endeavor. I tried to bend down to get something in the fridge, and I couldn’t. My analysis is that I may have pulled or even sprained my right groin muscle somehow. I know — very cool, right? This could be a disaster.

I tried to carry on as normal and sat on an ice pack while I ate my muesli brunch.

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The muesli consisted of 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, and about two tbsp chopped dried fruit (berries, apricots, prunes, and raisins) from Newman’s Own Organics (yet another thing I had no idea that Newman’s made before yesterday). I let that mix sit for an hour during yoga and shower, and then I ate it on top of a cup of my tropical fruit salad and topped with some trail mix:

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And the pain persisted. I thought of the haircut, the laundry, the cleaning … everything I was finally going to do this weekend since I don’t have a ton of homework for once. But I couldn’t move!

I got up briefly from my ice pack around 4 to heat up linner. Here it is between the petals of the gorgeous roses Myrna gave me yesterday at work:

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I had some of Myrna’s chicken lasagna topped with homemade parmesan:

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And the rest of the Granny Smith apple slices from my work meeting on Wednesday with cinnamon and homemade almond-cashew butter:

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And then I hobbled to my room and napped for four hours because there was nothing else to do. I woke up a little after 8, got a new ice pack, took 3 ibuprofen, and called my mom and cried for an hour. I’m thinking I may need to go to the emergency room tomorrow? I’ve never had an exercise-induced injury before … and especially not a sprained groin which seems like the most awkward-possible location of a muscle sprain ever. Do you have any advice for me?

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things look less bleak in the morning. I don’t know what I’m going to do about this!

Frosted Friday

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I had a snacktastic breakfast this morning:

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But gym before breakfast. I did 15 minutes on the bike followed by 30 on the elliptical (again, trying to go easy on the old knees). Stats: 1 hour and 10 minutes, 397 calories, 123 average heart rate, 171 max. I know that strength has been conspicuously absent from all of my workouts this week. All of a sudden, I just can’t even stand the thought of doing the same old, same old. Coming up with a new plan is at the top of my agenda for the weekend.

My snacky breakfast began with 1/3 toasted blueberry bagel with 2 tbsp of a spread made of Greek yogurt, part-skim ricotta, goat cheese, lemon curd, and cinnamon. Topped with sliced strawberries:

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You MUST try this combo!! (Emily almost already has, with her blackberry and lemon curd filled wedding cake, drooooool.)

Breakfast snack #2 was 1/3 cup healthy lemon [curd] cream cheese icing (hidden on the bottom) topped with the last 1/3 cup spinach oatmeal, another dollop of icing, a spoonful of homemade almond-cashew butter, unsweetened coconut, and sliced strawberries:

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Along with a couple tbsp granola/trail mix/cocoa-java almonds for gradual mixing in:

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With soymilky black tea and sunlight of course 😀

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This afternoon will be interesting, as we have a four-hour long “fun” event planned that is going to involve discussion (and perhaps break-out groups and role-playing, my FAVORITE, haaaaa) of this book.

Lunch is going to be provided, but word on the street is that it will be pizza from a local pizza spot. I am aware that I live in NY, home of the best pizza in the world, and the notion of free lunch pizza should excite me … but I work in East Harlem. Not exactly the pizza capital of the city …. I’m bringing a bunch of snacks just in case.

P.S. It’s Friday! What will be the best part of your day today?

P.P.S. I mentioned the other day that I should have been born in the DR (Dominican Republic) because I am in love with the food my coworkers bring to share with me. My dad replied to the post, “We thought about having you born in the Dining Room but thought better of it.” His comment made me laugh out loud, and so I wanted to share 😀

All-in-one

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Well, I suppose it’s time to get moving on a recap of the entire day! Seriously, where does the time go??

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I got back into the cardio groove this morning (thank goodness because my body was craving some sweat action) with a solid run around the park. Stats: 4.2 miles, 41 minutes, 380 calories, average heart rate 160, max 173. Despite the cloudy chill outside, the air sort of smelled like spring. Do you know what I mean? And I saw a few little yellow daffodil buds peeking out on the side of the road. Very exciting!

I got crafty for breakfast. Last night, I mixed 1/4 cup of my spinach oatmeal blend with 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats and spread it on a plate to set in the fridge breakfast cookie-style. This morning:

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Because the cookie behaved so well, I smothered it with 1/3 cup of modified healthy cream cheese icing: nonfat Greek yogurt, part-skim ricotta, cinnamon, vanilla, and 1 tsp each of lemon curd and goat cheese. You may be skeptical of the goat cheese-in-a-sweet-meal combo you’ve been seeing on here lately, but believe me when I say it pairs perfectly with the lemon curd!

I topped it all with strawberries, granola/trail mix, and some cocoa-java almonds:

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I was running ridiculously late for class, so I ended up rolling the whole thing into a breakfast burrito of sorts and stuffing it into a container so I could enjoy on the train.

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And enjoy it I did!

I continued nibbling all throughout class, starting with a sliced apple and my second packet of Barney Butter from the Foods That Fit prize pack.

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(Sorry for the recycled picture! I got to class too late to do my usual photo shoot before it started.)

Next was the last two stuffed collard greens:

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With a half cup roasted veggies:

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And, of course, my colorific tropical fruit salad + yogurt topped with golean crunch:

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After all the healthy, I needed chocolate and peanut butter stat. Luckily, Lisa came through with this golden nugget:

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When I got back to the Slope later, I popped into the library to return a couple books and pick up my latest reservation, Gastropolis. I’m so excited for this one!

I also stopped into Union Market for samples — a cube of gruyere, two rice crisps, and some marinated mushrooms. I continued the snacking when I got home with 1/3 cup of fruit salad with trail mix and dark chocolate-pomegranate tea (leftover black tea from this morning, a fresh bag of TJ’s pomegranate white tea, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, splash unsweetened soymilk, spinkle of cinnamon):

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(Warning: Before you try this at home, I did not sweeten this tea because I was in the mood for some bitterness. If you’re not into straight unsweetened cocoa powder, you should prob add some sweetness!)

I got hungry again around 4:00 and decided to just go straight for dinner instead of messing around with some sort of snack endeavor. I made a quick open-faced sandwich with two slices of pumpernickel baguette (from work last week), a smear of goat cheese, slices of radish and granny smith apple (also from work), and two Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Black Bean-Salmon Patties.

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In the background, you can see the last 1/3 cup roasted veggies that I tossed in for bulk:

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Dessert was brilliantly fun! I heated about 1/2 cup of the Sylvia’s banana bread pudding from work yesteday (thanks again, Pura!) and froyo’d a mix of 1/3 cup Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta, 1/2 mashed banana, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tbsp peanut butter, and 1 chopped hershey’s kiss. Here’s the resulting chocolate chocolate chip peanut butter banana ice cream sundae, garnished with sliced strawberries to appease my dad and his brownness-aversion 🙂

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And to conclude, I had 1/2 a chocolate rugelach (from the Gastropolis event mentioned above) and two Jasmine Tea Biscotti Bites.

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Speaking of the bites, more reviews have been popping up around the blogworld, thanks to Vani and Brandi. Three dozen of these goodies could be all yours on April 6! Make sure you save the date so you remember to bid on these and other treats during Meghann‘s bake sale for a good cause!

kreativIn other exciting news, Dulcie of Daily Dulcie and Leanne of Fuel and Fitness have both awarded me with the Kreativ Blogger award. Thanks, ladies!! This is such a huge compliment coming from bloggers of your “kreativ” caliber 😀

When and where do you feel most creative?