Friday Morning Wake Up

I will say that when that alarm went off at 5am and it was hecka cold outside of the blanket I needed to take 4 or 5 deep breaths before I stepped out of bed.  But I got into the garage/gym at 5:09am and jumped right on the stationary bike for a quick 5 min warm up.

Why is that riding the stationary bike for 5 min seems like so much less effort and excitement than warming up for that same amount of time on the treadmill?  Could it be that in the 5 min I rode 2.15 miles but only burned 23 calories?!?  Probably.

After the 5 min warm up I did a circuit work out made up of a bunch of different circuits that I’ve been doing…with a few random things thrown in to mix it up.

I used: Fitness Magazine‘s Fierce & Fab in 14 days and pieces of  Tone It Up’s gym free circuits.

Use that 1 minute breather to get your dumbells in easy grabbing position.

I try to focus on form and balance first.  Once it starts feeling too easy I’ll add more reps or change the weight of the dumbell or kettlebell I am using.

After that sweat-fest, I came in to whip up some breakfast.  While my green smoothie (see recipe in yesterday’s post) was whirring away in the blender I made an egg-less protein pancake.  Or attempted to make it into a pancake may be a better way to say it. It was delicious, but in no way would you call it a pancake.  It was more like warmed banana flavored stuff you hoped didn’t fall off your fork.  🙂  I should have used coconut flour or GF flour instead of the ground flax – to offer some binding opportunity.  Oh well.  That’s the nice thing about food experimenting, most of the fails you can still eat.

To make the pancake I replaced my egg whites with 1/2 a cup of unsweetened applesauce, kept in the 1/2 a banana, protein powder, ground flax meal, chia seeds and cinnamon.

The pictures still make it worthwhile.  Drool away…

That’s 2 cups of spinach!

Warmed banana “stuff”

It is so chilly today but the sky is blue and clear.  So here’s to hoping for a warm up in a bit.  Come on Sun!  You can do it.  🙂

See ya later

Cathy

 

 

 

Move it…it’s Monday

**I started writing this whole spiel when I was supposed to be wrapping up my weekend…so instead you’ll read my Monday morning monologue…then get to read the “woah” inducing weekend wrapup after.  You know, just to keep it interesting.  🙂

Honestly I don’t know how daily bloggers do it.  They either lead super exciting jazzy lives or they find more delights in daily living than I give my life credit for.  I mean I guess I could give you a working gal’s play by play of how many conference calls I did…or if I decided to get dressed in something other than sweats and t-shirts and headed into the office…or if I wrote some document or some other super exciting wonky (or work’y) thing like that.

I could write about my Eats…but you’d probably end up saying “didn’t I just read that yesterday?” as I tend to repeat, repeat, repeat what I Eat.  Like the Apple Cider Vinegar drink I start my day with because I read it’s good for your metabolism, followed by a protein pancake (egg whites, protein powder, flax meal, cinnamon, smushed banana) topped with fruit of some sort, a honeycrisp apple (while in season) for snack, followed by sauted veggies (whatever is in the fridge) for lunch, another piece of fruit or a smoothie for the afternoon tide me over (if I remember before it’s time to cook dinner) and finally sauted veggies and a protein for dinner.  Whoo-whee!  I can hardly contain myself with the excitement about all that variety.

ALTHOUGH…I do find the veggie saute quite beautiful in the light of Instagrams Lo-Fi setting.  The colors that nature has blessed food with to not only attract us but to almost define how they will taste in our pieholes is actually one more great mystery to life.  SO TOO…do I find that I have demonstrated some level of creativity as I stare into the open pantry and open refridgerator as I figure out what I’m going to Eat for the requisite feeding time.

AND…I could give updates on my morning Sweats since I’m now including a bunch of body weight circuits into my 5am routines.  PLUS…focusing more on speed workouts to improve my time again for my next half-marathon in January 2013 that could be interesting to some of you out there.

SO…I guess I could write daily if I really put my mind to it.  I guess the questions are: 1. Can I dedicate the time to writing every day?  2.  Can I give myself a break and just write instead of feeling like what I did won’t make the “blog read” cut?  REALLY…it’s all in how I approach this and I meant for this whole blogging adventure to be FUN and a way for me to keep myself honest as I balance healthy living and living healthy with direction and magnitude.

OH.  So I guess that’s why I named my blog that.  🙂

Have a great Monday yourself.

See ya later!

Cathy

 

Breakfast…in 2 parts

Running a little slow this morning…I gotta get back into the “spring outta bed once the alarm rings” mode.  I made my spin on 2-ingredient pancake that has been floating on a lot of other healthy living blogs out there and also made Stuft Mama’s Mocha Smoothie.  SO YUM!  So here are some pictures to make you salivate…and the recipes so you don’t have to hunt them down.

All in the pan!

All on the plate…Yum!

3 Ingredient Pancake (+ Almond Butter)

1 mashed banana, 1/3 cup egg whites (I used Lucerne‘s brand), 1/3 cup of pre-made quinoa with cinnamon for flavor.

Spray pan with cooking spray.  Add quinoa, egg whites and mashed banana to pan.  Swirl it around so all the ingredients get mixed up.  Sprinkle as much cinnamon as you like over the top.  Cook over medium heat (my burner was set at 5.5) and cook slowly.  Once you see the egg whites set up along the edges and the middle starting to firm up you can attempt to flip it over in one piece.  I say attempt because mine ripped down the middle so I flipped the 2 pieces and smooshed it back together to look like a single pancake.

Cook the second side for about 5 more minutes then slide the whole shebang onto a plate.  Ploop whatever nut butter of your choice on top of the pancake – it’ll start to melt from the heat of the hot pancake.  Eats are done!

STUFT Mama’s mocha smoothie

To go along with my pancake I made STUFT Mama’s mocha smoothie.  (I ate part of my pancake before taking 12yo to school, then the rest after I made the smoothie…hence the 2 parts title.)  Pancake & Smoothie were both super easy and super tasty!

STUFT Mama’s Mocha Smoothie

Handful of raw spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 2 Tbsp cocoa powder, 1 Tbsp instant espresso, 1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk.

Put all the ingredients into your blender hit the button and let it whirl.

Drink up after it’s all combined.

Hope your brekkie’s were as tasty as mine was this morning!

See ya later….

Cathy

What did you have for breakfast this morning?  Something quick and easy like mine or super fancy and complex?