Tag: oatmeal

Rating the day

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It was a good morning!!!

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I am SO happy today because I had an excellent workout this morning for the first time in 11 days 😀 I never thought I would miss exercise so much! As I was going to bed last night at 9:30, I took two naproxen in the hopes that they would hold me through this morning since I didn’t want to have to take one on an empty stomach. I also set my alarm for 4:50am so that I could get the heating pad going on my “right gluteal muscle” for a few minutes before I had to move. I was out the door by 5:13 and did a 4.5 minute jog to the gym very lightly. It hurt a bit, but now that I’m not as worried about tearing something, the pain didn’t really bother me and seemed stable rather than worsening.

At the gym, I spent about 1/2 hour doing month 1 of the 2009 Self Challenge strength workout. I tore it out of the magazine at the gym a month or so ago (shhh) and decided now would be a good time to start because a few of the exercises involve lunges and squats like the sports doctor recommended yesterday. I did all of the exercises as written, though I had to do the “make it easier” option for the “arm accentuator” and the “total transformer” because they did seem to aggravate my groin and glutes in a way that made me nervous.

I followed the strength with 20 glorious minutes on the Stepmill at Level 10, 7 minutes of leg stretching, and the 4.5 minute jog home. Again, mild discomfort, but nothing seemed to be worsening! Of course, that’s what I thought when I was running those 10 miles two weekends ago and the pain all of a sudden got much stronger. But anyway, I’m not planning to go quite back up to 10 miles yet — I might give 3 a shot tomorrow — and I’m also running very slowly and paying loads of attention to my posture and form. Hopefully, I am on the mend for good. And I so appreciate all of your support. Reading your stories, opinions, and advice has been super helpful, so please keep it coming!

Breakfast today was more overnight millet:

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I’m really loving the texture. Some of you commented yesterday that you were surprised this worked with millet without any cooking. Again, the texture is still a bit crunchy, but if you try to bite a grain of raw millet, you’ll see it’s pretty easy to do even without the benefit of an overnight soak. Just to reiterate the process, I mixed 1/4 cup dry millet with 1/4 cup yogurt/ricotta/dried apricot blend and 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk and left it in the fridge overnight. This morning, I gave it a stir and topped it with pineapple, strawberries, and unsweetened coconut. See the little millets?

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If you try it, let me know what you think!

On the side, I had two teeny pieces of toasted pumpernickel baguette and a little raisin-walnut toastie topped with 1 tbsp cashew-almond butter (not chocolate) and more coconut:

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Plus, my new Yogi Mexican Sweet Chili tea with a splash of soymilk.

I feel so satisfied now — I’m full of good nutrition, and I finally got my morning sweat going again 😀

On a scale of 1-10, how was your morning?

If you missed it earlier, check out my pistachi-YES giveaway!

And another contest I am DEFINITELY entering with all of this leg drama is the one for McDavid Compression Wear going on now at Run to the Finish. Go check it out!

Persistent funk

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Hello, hello, hello!

Breakfast involved more overnighting.

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We’re out of oats, so I combined 1/4 cup millet with 1/3 cup of the yogurt mixture I’ve been having for lunch this week (oikos, ricotta, banana, strawberries, dried apricot) and 1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk. I’m out of fresh produce, too, the horror!, so I topped it with another 2 chopped apricots, dried berries, and coconut.

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The millet overnighted well. It was still pretty crunchy, and I like that in a grain.

On the side, I had two slices of pumpernickel baguette from the freezer with 1 tbsp cashew-almond butter mashed with the last tsp (tear) lemon curd and sprinkled with more coconut.

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I know it looks like chocolate, but I promise it is cashew-almond butter. The nuts just got a teeeeeeeny bit burned.

And green tea and lots of water (to make up for the water missing from my fruit!):

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So, I did NOT end up going to the gym this morning since I was in all that pain last night. Instead, I got up at 6 and sat on the heating pad for 10 minutes before I started moving. It’s a little better today, but I just want to be normal! I did some crunches and push-ups (cough, like 10) to try to pull myself out of the cizerfunk, but it’s not the same. And I still feel the guilt! And then I feel guilt for feeling guilt because of things like this that pop up in google when I’m just trying to double check the spelling for “persistent.” I keep thinking I should be taking advantage of this time to develop pecs of steel or something, but I’m not. I’ll probably have to start soon, though, if this keeps up! Pull-ups on the shower rod, here I come …

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever used as an exercise prop at home? I need some ideas!

But where’s the sweat?

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While breakfast was still fast asleep overnighting in the fridge this morning, I was on my way back to the gym!

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The gym is two short blocks plus two long blocks away from my apartment. It takes me 7.5 minutes to walk there or just under 4 minutes to jog. My plan was to walk the first two short blocks to warm up and then try jogging the last two long blocks. But two steps into the jog, my leg said NO. I listened and made myself walk the whole way.

I found strolling through Brooklyn at 5:15 on a deserted, pitch-black Monday morning to be a little bit creepy. There’s something unsettling about knowing that I canNOT run if I need to. The route I walk does, however, provide a lovely view of the Statue of Liberty, so I focused my attention on the scenery instead of on the shady gypsy cabs.

At the gym, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical at a low resistance and easy pace (which means there was really no sweat happening) and then spent a good long time with a thorough stretch and some abs. It felt good to be back to my routine, but it was a bummer to not be able to push like I normally do. I’m feeling a lot of unreasonable guilt, too. For so long when I was younger, exercise = good and no exercise = bad. And I like to be good! I didn’t think I had that mindset anymore, but being forced to stay off my feet has made me realize I kind of still do. I was so jealous watching everyone else huffing and puffing! I’m thinking of reacquainting myself with the rower tomorrow since that’s mostly upper-body-powered, right? Maybe I can get a better workout that way.

So, breakfast:

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Last night, I combined 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats, 2 tbsp golean crunch, 1/4 cup chopped dried fruit (Newman’s prunes, berries, apricots, and raisins), 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, and 1/4 cup plain Oikos. Here’s what it looked like straight out of the fridge this morning:

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After a stir:

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And topped with strawberries, unsweetened coconut, and a spoonful of cashew almond butter.

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I’m sipping green tea on the side and getting excited for my favorite day of the week (JOKE). Be back laaaaaaaate tonight after class!

What makes you feel guilty?

Winnerzzzzz

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It’s time to announce the winners of the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway! To recap, five winners will receive one full package each of the Bob’s Red Mill food product of their choosing. Between comments, linkbacks, and emails from non-bloggers, this contest generated 205 entries. Using random.org, here are the five lucky ducks:

#49 Emily‘s linkback:

What’s your AIM? « Super Caloric Chalk Dust […] CONTEST –  Melissa is giving away bbq sauce.  Sarah is giving away Bob’s Red Mill goodies.  Strawberry Shorstuff is giving away some bars and […]

#142 Jogger’s Life linkback

Contests Around Blogville « Jogger’s Life […] Tales of Expansion is giving away freebies from Bob’s Red Mill. So exciting! I love Bob’s. […]

#57 Genesis

im really excited for your giveaway. i just started blogging and this is the first giveaway ive entered because im really excited about the product. i would love to try the apples, cinnamon & grains cereal. that would totally make my morning. thanks for the giveaway chance.

#102 Amandamoo

What a lovely contest! I’d love the oatbran or meusli! Mmmm… grains…. mmmm…

#68 Vani

 

amazing giveaway!! I’ve been wanting to try cooking with wheat bran . . . and their pancake mixes look so yummy . . . oy! Too many choices!

Congratulations, winners! And I’m especially psyched that Vani and Emily (my two fellow Slopers as evidenced here and here) elbowed in there, too. What are the odds?! Ladies, I’ll be emailing you all shortly to get your final Bob’s Red Mill selections and your shipping info.

Onto breakfast!

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I had a dazzling breakfast cookie waiting for me this morning. I mixed the rest of last night‘s oatmeal-protein porridge combo with just under 1/4 cup dry old-fashioned oats, 1 tbsp each Newman’s own raisins and dried berries, 1 tbsp nonfat powdered milk, 1 tbsp PB2, and 1 tbsp Hershey’s chocolate crumbles. I flattened the mix onto a plate in cookie form.

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Because I made it from already-cooked oatmeal, it was still super soft this morning. I stuck it in the freezer for maybe an hour or so while I got my laundry going, took care of some other business, and downed a pot of green tea. To unstick the cookie from the plate post-freeze, I ran hot water over the bottom of the plate and then popped the whole cookie off with a spatula and transferred it to a fresh plate.

Next up, I mixed 2 tbsp Pb2 with 1/4 cup healthy cream cheese icing (ricotta was on sale, and I had coupons for free vanilla Oikos, hence the frosting overload lately!) and frosted my cookie with the peanut butter cheesecake blend 😀 Topped with three chopped strawberries:

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And a cashew-almond butter center:

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Mmmm, so filling and delicious. It was a lovely reward after the laundry man yelled at me for trying to stuff too many things into one dryer this morning. But it’s not my fault! I had actually planned to use two dryers today, but they were all taken and I didn’t want to hang around waiting. I just put it all in one and doubled the time 😛

When was the last time you got yelled at?

Happy birthday, mom!

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In honor of my mom’s birthday today, I filled my evening with sweetness 😀

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I mentioned earlier that my roommate Tara had donated some overripe bananas and aging strawberrries to me since she’s out of town for the weekend. She also donated some banana peanut butter oatmeal which obviously needed a place of honor in my dinner tonight.

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I mixed her cup of oatmeal with the remaining 3/4 cup of protein porridge and then heated half of that mix in the oven. Alongside 1/3 cup healthy cream cheese icing, lots of strawberries, and a slab of cashew-almond butter:

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Sometime after that, I had a minor snack attack and grabbed a few tortilla chips right out of the bag. I also had a couple tbsp golean crunch with a spash of unsweetened soymilk:

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For dessert, I made a sampler platter of treats.

The platter included the last slice of chocolate-frosted chocolate brownie from my freezer bag:

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Healthy cream cheese icing, strawberries, and a jasmine tea biscotti bite:

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Plus the star:

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Remember when I got to have cheesecake batter for dessert earlier in the week? My roommate Brigitte saved me a big slice of the finished product! (Side note: Brigitte cooks in a way that I would never have the guts to. The entire cheesecake included six full packages of real cream cheese plus loads of real butter.) I had half of it with a twistie-tie “M for Mom” since I couldn’t find any birthday candles:

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Ummm, and then I went back and had the other half of the slice. It’s my mom’s birthday, after all! And it was also SO good. Especially the crunchy chocolate wafer crust. Ahhhhh!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!! Thanks for giving me an excuse to eat lots of sugar (as though I needed another one :P).

How often do you eat REAL (as in, not healthy) desserts?

Don’t forget to enter the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway. The contest ends at noon tomorrow!

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